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EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY

€xtra Series!, No. LXXI 1897 (reprinted 1907, 1925, 1952, 1966)

Price 455.

ft

RE-EDITED FROM THE UNIQUE MS.

BY

GEORGE ENGLAND

WITH SIDE-NOTES AND INTRODUCTION

BY

ALFRED W. POLLARD

Published for

THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY

by the

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

FIRST PUBLISHED 1897 REPRINTED I 9 O 7, 1925, 19 5 2, 1966

Cxtra Series:, No. LXXI

ORIGINALLY PRINTED BY RICHARD CLAY AND SONS LTD., BUNGAY, SUFFOLK AND REPRINTED LITHOGRAPHICALLY IN GREAT BRITAIN

BY VIVIAN RIDLER AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD

TO

THE MEMORY OF

iKUIlhm IJtorris,

WHO LOVED THESE PLAYS, OUR SHARE IN THIS BOOK A. W. P., F. J. F.

101705

' . I

I

CONTENTS.

NO. paok

INTRODUCTION ... ... ... ... ... ix

appendix (The Secunda Pastorum and Archie Ann-

strang’s Aith) ... ... ... ... xxxi

i. THE creation.1 (The Barkers. YVakefeld) ... 1

ii. mactacio abel. (The Glovers) ... ... . . 9

hi. processus noe cum filiis. (WakefeM) ... ... 23

IV. ABRAHAM2 ... ... ... ... ... 40

v. [isaac] ... ... . . ... ... 49

VI. IACOB ... ... ... ... ... 52

?ii. processus prophetarum. [Incomplete] ... ... 56

viii. pharao. (The Litsters or Dyers) [York xi] ... 64

IX. CESAR AUGUSTUS ... ... ... ... 78

X. ANNUNCIACIO ... ... ... .. ... 86

XI. SALUTAOIO ELEZABETH ... ... ... ... 97

xii. una pagina pastorum. (Prima) ... ... 100

xiii. alia eorundem. (Secunda) ... ... ... 116

XIV. OBLACIO MAGORUM ... ... ... ... 140

XV. FUGACIO JOSEP MARIE IN EGYPTUM ... ... 160

XVI. MAGNUS HERODES ... ... ... ... 166

xvii. purificacio marie. [Incomplete at end] ... ... 181

xv hi. pagina doctorum. [Incomplete at beginning. Yorkxxii] 186

1 After this piny the MS. has lost 12 leaves, containing no doubt the Temptation of Eve and the expulsion of her and Adam from Paradise.

* Incomplete : 2 leaves of the M8. wanting, which contained the end of “ Abraham ” and the beginning of “ Isaac.”

VI 11

Contents,

NO. PAGB

XIX. IOIIANXES BAPTIST A ... ... ... ... 195

xx. conspiracy [et capcio] ... ... ... 204

XXI. COLIPHIZAC'IO ... ... ... ... ... 228

XXII. FFLAGELLACIO ... ... ... ... 243

xxiii. processus crucis [kt crucifixio] ... ... 258

XXIV. PROCESSUS TALENTORUM ... ... ... 279

xxv. extraccio animarum. [York xxx vii] ... ... 293

xxvi. resurreccio Domini. [York xxxviii] ... ... 306

xxvii. peregrini. (The Fisliers) ... ... ... 325

XXVIII. THOMAS INDIE [ET RESURRECCIO DOMINl] ... ... 337

XXIX. ASCENCIO DOMINI1 ... ... ... ... 353

xxx. iudicium. [York xlviii] ... ... ... 367

XXXI. LAZARUS ... ... ... ... ... 387

xxxii. suspencio iude. [Incomplete] ... ... ... 393

GLOSSARY ... ... ... ... ... 397

1 Incomplete. Twelve leaves are out of the MS. between this play and the next.

IX

INTRODUCTION.

The Towneley Plays were printed for the first time by the Surtees Society in 1836, with an introduction which is variously assigned to the Society's secretary, James Paine, and to J. Hunter. The text of the plays as printed in this Surtees edition is, on the whole, very creditably accurate, and is certainly far more free from serious blunders than that of the so-called ‘Coventry’ Plays, edited by Halliweli-Phillipps for the Shakespeare Society, or even than that of the Chester Plays, as edited by Thomas Wright. It was not, however, a transcript with which students of the present day could be content in the case of a unique manuscript, the ultimate destina¬ tion of which is still, unhappily, uncertain. Under Dr. FurnivaU’s superintendence a new transcript was, therefore, made by Mr. George England, who, by the great kindness and liberality of Mr. Qnaritch, the present owner of the manuscript, after the book had been placed at his disposal for some weeks at the British Museum, was allowed the use of it a second time at 15 Piccadilly to correct his proofs by the origin aL

To the text thus produced Dr. Furnivall himself added notes of the metres, and at his request the present writer supplied the usual sidenotes, an interesting and pleasant task in the case of a work of so great variety and literary value. Dr. FurnivaH’s further com¬ mands for the supply of an Introduction were far less agreeable. The Towneley Plays present many problems, more especially as to their language, which deserve to be dealt with by some learned professor, or at any rate by an editor of really wide reading and experience. The learned professor, however, could not be obtained. The difficulty of procuring an introducer threatened to postpone indefinitely the appearance of the new text (a consideration all the more serious since the Surtees edition has long been difficult to procure) ; and as texts are far more important than introductions, it seemed better to be content to draw attention to a few points of interest rather than further to delay publication.

Short as is the preface to the Surtees edition, it contains much

x History of the Toavneley MS.

that is of real value, as being written by a local antiquary to whom the history and topography of the district to which the plays are assigned were thoroughly familiar. I cannot, therefore, make a better beginning than by quoting the most essential passages of what was written in 1836, since it has not yet been superseded : —

“ The Manuscript Volume in which these Mysteries have been preserved formed part of the library at Towneley Hall, in Lanca¬ shire, collected by the family of Towneley ; a family which, in the two last centuries, produced several remarkable men, through whom it becomes connected with the arts, with literature, and with science. The library was dispersed in two sales by auction, at Evans’ Rooms, in Pall Mall, the first in 1814, when there were seven days’ sale; the second in 1815, when the sale lasted ten days.”

“ This manuscript, as well as the famous Towneley Homer, was in the first sale. It was bought by John Louis Goldsmid, Esq. From his possession it very soon passed to Mr. North, but before 1822 it had returned to the family in whose library it had for so many years found protection.”

“ By what means the Towneley family became possessed of it, or at what period is not known. There is nothing known with cer¬ tainty respecting any previous ownership. When, however, the catalogue of the Towneley books and manuscripts was prepared

for the sale in 1814, Mr. Douce was requested to write a short

notice, for insertion in it. In this notice, after assigning the com¬ position of the Mysteries to the reign of Henry VI. or Edward IV.,1

he says of the volume itself, that it is supposed to have formerly

‘belonged to the Abbey of Widkirk, near Wakefield, in the County of York.’” a

1 There is a passage in the Judicium which may assist in determining tho period a" which it was written. Tntivillus, in describing a fashionable female, tells his brother demons “she is hornyd like a kowe ” (p. 312 [Surtees; p. 375, 1. 267 in present edition]). He appears to allude to the same description of head dress which Stowe thus records : “ 1388, King Richard (the second) married Anne, daughter of Veselaus, King of Bohem. In her dayes, noble women used high attire on their heads, piked like homes, with long trained gownes.” — Surtees Note.

2 After returning into the possession of the Towneley family, as narrated above, the Plays were again sold, with the rest of the Towneley MSS., at Sotheby’s, on June 27, 28, 1883. The description of the lot was as follows :

202. Towneley Mysteries. A most valuable collection of early English Mysteries, supposed to have been written at Woodkirk in the Cell there of Augustinian or Black Canons, for the Amusement

XI

The Tovmeley MS. belonged to Woodkirk Abbey.

“ This supposition, however, he appears to have subsequently con¬ sidered as not worthy of much regard ; for when Mr. Peregrine Edward Towneley, in 1822, printed, from this manuscript, the Indicium , as his contribution to the Roxburgh Club, an introduction was written by Mr. Douce, in which he says that the volume is ‘ supposed to have belonged to the Abbey of Wh alley,’ and to have passed at the dissolution into the library of the neighbouring family of Towneley.”

“ On what foundation either of these suppositions rests we are not informed. The first, however, is that which has been most generally accepted, and the three principal collections of Mysteries now known have been usually quoted or referred to as those of Chester, Coventry, and Widkirk.”

“ In the absence of precise information, we may assume that the supposition of its having formerly belonged to ‘ the Abbey of Wid¬ kirk’ was the Towneley tradition respecting it; and previously to any investigation it may be assumed, that if we are to trace the possession of such a volume as this in a period before the Reforma¬ tion, next perhaps to the archives of some guild or other corporation in one of the cities or towns of England, we may expect to find it in the possession of some Conventual society. The question of that early possession is, in fact, the question of the composition of these Mysteries, as to the place and people. We shall now endeavour to determine it.”

“ The supposition that this book belonged ‘ to the Abbey of Wid¬ kirk, near Wakefield,’ has upon it remarkably the characteristics of a genuine tradition. There is no distinct enunciation of the fact which the tradition proposes to exhibit, and yet out of the words of the supposition we may decisively and easily extract what the fact in it originally was. There is no place called Widkirk in the

and Edification of Persons attending these Pageants. Manuscript on Vellum , written circa 1388, in a bold hand , with initial Letters orna¬ mented with the Pen, having the speeches separated by Uifts of red Ink, olive morocco extra, gold-tooling, tooled leather joints and gilt edges, by C. Lends, back broken. Saec. xiv.

The lot was knocked down to Mr. Quaritch, in whose possession the manu¬ script has ever since remained. The date assigned to the plays by the cataloguer is clearly derived from the Surtees foot-note on the woman’s head- gear satirized by Tutivillus ; for a discussion of this, see p. xxiv. Whether the date given to the Plays is right or wrong, that assigned to the MS. is certainly three-quarters of u century too early.

xii The Cell of Canons at Woodkirk.

neighbourhood of Wakefield, and neither there nor in any part of England was there ever an Abbey of Widkirk. But there is a place called Woodkirk in that neighbourhood, and at Woodkirk there was a cell of Augustinian or Black Canons, a dependence on the great house of St. Oswald, at Nostel. Whatever weight there may be attached to the supposition or tradition respecting the original pos¬ session, must, therefore, be given to the claim of this Cell of Canons at Woodkirk.”

“ Woodkirk is about four miles to the north of Wakefield. A small religious community was established there in the first half century after the Conquest, by the Earls Warren, to whom the great Lordship of Wakefield belonged, and they were placed in subjection to the house of Nostel. King Henry I. granted to the Canons of Nostel, a charter, for two fairs, to be held at Woodkirk, one at the Feast of the Assumption, the other at the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mary. This grant was confirmed by King Stephen. These fairs, in a rural district, continued to attract a concourse of people to the time of the Reformation. In the Valor of King Henry VII L the profit of the tolls and stallage was returned at £13 6s. 8d., which was more than one-fourth of the yearly revenue of the house. The buildings in which the few Canons resided have gradually disappeared. Some portions of the Cloisters were remaining not long ago. The Church still exists, on a retired and elevated site, and remains of large reservoirs for the Canons’ fish in the vale below are still very conspicuous. ( Loidis and Elmete , p. 240.) ”

The writer of the Introduction inserts here a few paragraphs of no great value, pointing out resemblances between the language of the plays and the dialect spoken in his own day in the West Riding of Yorkshire. We may take advantage of his pause to note, that Professor Skeat, in a letter to the Atlienceum of December 2, 1893, proved decisively that the difficulty as to the place called Widkirk, of whose existence the writer of the preface could find no trace, is only an instance of a variation of spelling, Widkirk being merely an older form of Woodkirk, and one which still survives in the mouths of the country people (cp. the parallel forms Wydeville and Woodville, for the name of the Queen of King Edward IV.).

After the philological remarks the Introduction proceeds : —

“ Perhaps the supposition in the Towneley family, on whatever it

Allusions in the Plays to Woodlark and Wakefield xiii

may have been founded, and the striking resemblance which there is between the language of several of these pieces and the language of the same class of society as it may still be heard on the hills and in the plains of Yorkshire, may be sufficient to render it at least a point of probability that the composition of these Mysteries, and the original possession of- this volume, are to be attributed to the Canons of Wocdkirk; or that the possession is to be traced to them, and the composition, perhaps, to some one of the Canons in the far larger fraternity at Nostel. But the manuscript itself contains that which connects it with Wakefield ; and there are topographical allusions in one of the pieces, the Secunda Pastorum , which belong to the country near Wakefield and Woodkirk.”

“ Thus, at the beginning of the first is written in a large hand 1 Wakefelde’ and ‘ Berbers, * the meaning of which seems to be, that on some occasion this Mystery was represented at the town of Wakefield by the company or fellowship of the Barkers or Tanners. To the second is prefixed ‘ Glover Pag . . . ’ without the word Wakefield. The imperfect word is * Pagina,’ which appears to have been used as the Latin term for these kinds of exhibitions or pageants. The meaning appears to be that this was exhibited by the Glovers. At the head of the third, however, we find ‘ Wake¬ field’ again, without the name of any trade. These are the only notices of the kind, except that at the head of the ‘ Peregrini,’ the words ‘Fyssher Pagent’ 1 occur.”2

u It is in the Secunda Pastorum , which is truly described by Mr. Collier as ‘the most singular piece in the whole collection,’ that the local allusions occur which tend so strongly to corroborate the claim of Woodkirk and its Canons to the production of these Mysteries. Intended in the first instance for the edification or the amusement of the persons in the immediate vicinity of the places in which these Pageants were to be exhibited, we may expect to find that there will be, when the subject fairly admitted of it, attempts to arrest their attention, and to interest their minds, by such a simple artifice as the introduction of the names of places with which they were familiar. Thus, in the Chester Mysteries, the River Conway is spoken of, and

1 Mr. England notes that these words are in a later hand. — A. W. P.

a The words Lytster Play occur at the head of the Pharao. They were overlooked by the copyist, but the mistake is noticed in the errata. — Surtees Note.

xiv Horbury Scroggs and the Shepherd's Thom .

Bougliton is mentioned, a kind of suburb to Chester. In the Secunda Pastorum.

Stcundus Pastor. Who shuld do us that skome ? that were a fowlle spott.

Primus Pastor. Some shrewe.

I have soght with my doges All Horbery shroges And of XV hoges

Fond I bot oone ewe.

“ Horbury is the name of a village about two or three miles south¬ west from Wakefield. Shroges or Scroggs is a northern term applied to any piece of rough uuinclosed ground more or less covered with low brushwood.”

“The other local allusion is less decisive than this. When the two Shepherds appoint to meet, the place which they appoint is ‘ the crokyd thorne.’ Now, though it cannot, perhaps, be shown that there was any place or tree then precisely so denominated, yet it can be shown that, at no great distance from Horbury, there was at that time a remarkable thorn tree which was known by the name of the Shepherd’s Thorn. It stood in Mapplewell, near the borders of the two manors of Notton and Darton. A jury in the 20th of Edward IV., on a question between James Strangeways of Harlsey, and the Prior of Bretton, found that the Shepherd’s Thorn ‘ was in Darton ’ ; and in the time of Charles I., one John Webster of Kexborough, then aged 77, deposed that the inhabitants of Mapplewell and Darton had been accustomed to turn their sheep on the moor at all times, and that it extended southward to a place called ‘The Shep¬ herd's Thorn,’ where a thorn tree stood. There must be here more than an accidental coincidence.”

Since the publication of the Surtees Society edition of the Towneley Plays in 1836, all the three other great cycles of English Miracle Plays have been printed, the so-called ‘ Coventry ’ cycle in 1841, the Chester in 1843, and the York Plays, admirably edited by Miss Toulmin Smith, in 1885. The publication of this last cycle revealed the fact that five of the York Plays were based, in whole or in part, on the same originals as five of the Towneley. The importance of this discovery for the study of Miracle Plays and of the conditions under which they were produced, is hardly to be over-estimated. There is no reason to believe that it is by a mere chance, some peculiarly malicious freak of

XV

The Miracle Plays anonymous. The Ym'k Cycle.

the arch-enemy Time, that, as far as I am aware, in no single case are there two early copies extant of any miracle play. Human nature, we may presume, was much the same in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as in our own, and the ordinary author, when he had written a poem or a chronicle, no doubt did everything in his power to multiply copies of it, since every fresh copy would increase his chance of obtaining the patronage or preferment which constituted the rewards of authorship in those days. But in the case of plays we can easily see that a wholly different motive would come into action. With the highly doubtful exception of the Chester cycle, not a single Miracle Play has the name of any author connected with it. The author’s personality is wholly lost in that of the actors and their pay¬ masters ; and in the absence of any law of copyright or custom as to * acting rights,’ it was to the interest of these jealously to guard their book of the words, lest the popularity of their entertainment should suffer from unauthorized rivalry. Since many of the players probably could not read, even the multiplication of ‘ actors’ parts ’ would be very limited, and fresh copies would only be made when the plays underwent revision. The apparent exception to this theory, the five copies extant of the Chester cycle, really only confirm it, for all of these were made between 1590 and 1607, and must owe their exist¬ ence to the desire of literary a’ntiquaries either simply for their pre¬ servation or, more probably, for their revival, at a time when miracle plays were almost gone out of fashion.

For the reason thus hazarded, opportunities for the study of the genesis of any given cycle of plays are extremely small. We know that a fragment of the old poem of the Harrowing of Hell, beginning, ‘ Harde gatys haue I gon,’ is found imbedded in the ‘ Coventry ’ Play of the Resurrection, and, thanks once more to the industry of Miss Toulmin Smith, in the Brome ‘ Common-Place Book ’ we can now study a version of the Sacrifice of Isaac closely similar to that in the Chester cycle. But the relations of the five plays in the York and Towneley cycles are much more interesting and important than these, and it will be worth while to examine them with some minuteness.

The first of these five plays is that called by Miss Smith, 4 the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt,’ No. xi. in the York Cycle,1 acted by the 4 Hoseers,’ No. vm. in the Towneley Cycle, where it is

1 Printed, with the generous addition of the Towneley text at the foot of the page, on pp. 68 — 92 of Miss Smith’s edition ( York Plays. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith. Oxford at the Clarendon Press , 1885).

XVI

The Towneley and Y’ork Plays of Pharaoh .

called Pharao, and where also the sidenote ‘ Litsters Pagonn * informs us that it is one of the plays acted by the Craft-Gilds of Wakefield.

In comparing the two texts, the first point we notice is, that while the York Play consists of 408 1 lines, divided with unbroken regularity into 34 twelve-line stanzas, the metrical scheme of the Towneley Play is far less orderly. At the outset, indeed, it is evident that the Wakefield reviser mistook the metre, for by the addition of a quatrain of mere surplusage, he has turned the first 12- line stanza into two octetts. After seven long stanzas (divided in this text into octetts and quatrains, 3 — 16), we find similar additions in 11. 113 — 117 and 127 — 133, turning two 12-line stanzas into four octetts. Everything then proceeds regularly till we come to Towneley stanza 49, when we find a line —

Als wele on myddyng als on more

— missing after 1. 308.

Again in stanza 55 the two lines —

Lorde, was they wente than walde it sese,

So sliuld we save vs aud oure seede

— are omitted after 1. 340.

Iu stanzas 57, 58,11. 355 — 359 appear in the Towneley MS. as —

Primus Miles. A, my lord !

Pharao. * liagh !

ijus Miles. Grete pestilence is comyn ;

It is like ful long to last.

Pharao. In the dwilys name ! then is oure pride ouer past.

— in place of the regular York text (11. 344 — 348) —

i Egip. My lorde, grete pestelence Is like ful lange to last.

Rex. Owe ! come that in oure presence,

Than is oure pride al past.

Lastly, we find that the Towneley text has added, or more probably retained, twelve lines at the end of the play which do not appear in the York edition.

If now we turn our attention to single lines, we shall find numerous instances in which the Towneley text exhibits an unmetrical corruption of the York. Hero are a few —

1 Numbered by Miss Smith as 406, but the last couplet is really a quatrain, and might with advantage have been so printed.

Towneley and York Plays of Pharaoh and the Doctor's, xvii

That wold my fors down fell (T. 32)

That wolde aught fand owre forse to fell (Y. 28)

That shall euer last (T. 39)

They are like and they laste (Y. 34)

I shall sheld the from shame (T. 189)

I sail the saffe from synne and shame (Y. 176)

What, ragyd the dwyll of hell, alys you so to cry (T. 304)

What deuyll ayles you so to crye (Y. 291) (cp. T. 337 and 415, Y. 334 and 403)

On the other hand, T. 106—

And euer elyke the leyfes are greyn

— is plainly better than Y. 102 —

And the leues last ay in like grene

-and T. 216, 217-

God graunt you good weyndyng,

And euennore with you be

— both for their sense and the purity of the rime to ‘ kyng ’ are better thau Y. 203, 204-

God sende vs gude tythingis And all may with you be.

Lastly we may take a pair of lines —

My lord, hot if this menye may remeve (T. 270)

Lord, whills ve [sic] with this menyhe meve (Y. 277)

— in which we may reasonably suspect that both texts are corrupt forms of some such original as —

My lord, bot if this menye meve.

The inevitable conclusion from these notes is, that the Towneley text of Pharao is a corrupted and edited version of the York play of ‘ The Hoseers * in a slightly purer form than we have it at present. I think we may also say that the majority of the corruptions in the Towneley text are of the kind which would most naturally arise in oral transmission, rather than from the blunders of a scribe.

Turning now to the second play in which the two cycles partly agree, The Play of the Doctors (Towneley xvm. ; York xxn., played by the ‘ Sporiers and Loriners ’), we find that the Towneley text, which lacks the opening speech of ‘ Primus Magister,’ begins in its present form with twelve quatrains which are quite different from the York version, and then follows closely the York twelve-line stanzas to the end, only interrupting them to substitute a longer

B

xviii Towneley and Yoo'k Plays of Ham'owing and Resurrection.

exposition of the Ten Commandments, for which again quatrains are used. In some instances, as before, the Towneley text is better than the York, but we cannot doubt that the nearly homogeneous 1 York play represents the original on which the Towneley playwright incorporated his variations in a different metro.

A comparison of the third pair of plays— the York play of the Sadilleres (No. xxxvn.) and Towneley No. xxv. — representing the Extraccio Animarum or Harrowing of Hell, yields still more striking results. The York play, as usual quite regular, consists of 34 twelve-line stanzas, and it is clear that the Towneley play-wright had these in his mind all the way through, though sometimes, perhaps from failure of memory on the part of his informants, he can do no more than imbed a few York lines into new stanzas of his own, while elsewhere he makes intentional additions.

Summarizing the result of these changes, we find that the first twenty-four lines of Towneley reproduce ten from York ; then we have York stanzas 4 — 10 with interpolations between 4 and 5, 8 and 9, and the omission of the last quatrain of 5. Stanzas 11 and 12 are repre¬ sented by 11. 11 5 — 147, but only nine lines are preserved. Stanzas 13 — 15 are intact; stanza 16 is docked of its first quatrain ; then we have an interpolation of twelve lines; then the first quatrain of 17, the second and third being expanded into twelve lines. Stanzas 18 — 28 are only interrupted by an interpolation (11. 314 — 322) between 25 and 26. In 29 there is a substitution of a new third quatrain for four lines in the octett, the effect being so good that we may doubt whether in this case we have not really a pieservation of an older text. Then come stanzas 30 and 31, and eight lines of 32, and with two substituted quatrains the Towneley play reaches its rather abrupt end.

In the fourth pair of plays, treating of ‘The Resurrection ' (York xxxviii. ‘ The Carpenteres ’ : Towneley xxvi ), the resemblance begins four lines earlier than Miss Toulmin Smith has noted, T. 41 — 44 answering to Y. 31, 32, 35, 36, while the ‘rybaldys’ of T. 42 is a better reading than the York * rebelles.’ In the preceding speech of Pilate we may note how the Towneley adaptor altered the York metre by lengthening the last line of the first four stanzas from two beats to three. We find the same difference in the added stanzas 9 — 11 (11. 51 — 73), while five (or rather seven) lines tacked on to the

1 There is a slight disturbance, in which Towneley agrees, in York, stanzas 19, 20 (11. 216 — 240) and Towneley, stanzas 44 — 46 (11. 204 — 228).

XIX

Townclcy and York Plays of the Resurrection.

last of these are outside the metrical scheme altogether. Stanzas 12 and 13 have half their lines as in York and half new. Stanzas 14 — 22, though with many corruptions, reproduce York 11 — 22. Stanza 23 is added ; 24 (which should have been printed as in four lines) agrees with York 20, omitting the two opening lines ; 25, save in its third line, is the same as York 21. In stanza 26 some of the York phrases are retained, but every line has been changed, and the bad rimes * emang * and * stand * show the work of a botcher. After this, with various corruptions, too numerous to mention, stanzas 27 — 35 reproduce York 23 — 31, but there is nothing in the York play to answer to 11. 214 — 333 (stanzas 36 — 55). The first ten of these 120 lines continue the talk of the soldiers, the rest is made up of the monologue of the risen Christ. The metre continues regular; with a few exceptions, the origin of which can easily be seen, the last line of each stanza remains quadrisyllabic, instead of being lengthened as in the added stanzas at the beginning of the play, and I think there can be no doubt that this speech of Christ once formed part of the York Cycle, but was subsequently omitted. Similar speeches occur in the * Coventiy ’ and Chester cycles, and in the last-named there are some positive resemblances which, in case they have not been noticed before, I set forth in a footnote.1

It will be noticed that this [day falls naturally into three parts, of which Christ’s monologue is the centre; and it is much easier to

1 Towneley, 11. 226—231.

Erthly man, that I haue wroght Wightly wake, and slepe thou noght ! With bytter bay 11 I haue the boght, To make the fre ;

Into this dongeou depe I soght And all for luf of the.

11 322—327.

ffor I am veray prynce of peasse,

And synnes seyr I may releasse,

And whoso will of synnes seasse And mercy cry,

I grauntt theym here a measse In brede myn awn body.

Chester, vol. 2, p. 89. (Sh. Soc. ed.)

Eirthly man that 1 have wroughte, Awalce out of thy slepe ;

Eirthly man that I have bought ,

Of me thou have no kepe.

From heaven man’s soule I soughte Into a dongion depe Mydere lemon from thense I broughte For ruthe of her I weepe.

1 am vereye prince of peace,

And kinge of free mercye ;

Who will of synnes have release On me the call and crye.

And yf the will of synnes cease I graunte them peace trewlye,

And therto a full rich messyc,

In brede my owne bodye.

The verbal resemblances here seem almost too close to be explained by a common original. If there has been direct transmission, it must have been southwards.

xx Towneley and York Plays of Resurrection and Last Judgment .

believe that in some proems of amalgamating or dividing the different parts, this speech was omitted from the York manuscript, than that so important a feature in the plays was not represented in the cycle.

After 1. 333 in Towneley, etc., agreement between the two cycles is resumed, and continues, with the usual verbal variations, to 1. 561, the agreement of the stanzas being as follows —

Towneley.	York.	Towneley.	York.
56—66 =	32—42	88 partly	= 67
67 =	parts of 43, 44	89	= 68
68—85 =	45—62	90—93	= 70-73
86, 87	64, 65

Stanzas 63, 66 and 69 of York are unrepresented. L. 562 in Towneley is extra metrum, and cuts short the rather wearisome talk of Pilate which lasts in the York play for another eighteen lines. The scene between Christ and S. Mary Magdalene, which follows in the Towneley cycle, forms a sepaiate play (No. xxxix.) in the York, and there are no textual resemblances. It will be noticed that of the first eight of the jeleven stanzas into which it is divided, every one has a different metre — a sure sign, I think, of the hasty work rendered necessary by an incident which could not be omitted having to be tacked on to a different play.

The case of the last of the five parallel texts, that of the play of the Last Judgment (Towneley xxx. Judicium; York xlviii. acted by the ‘ Merceres ’), is again very striking and interesting. The Towneley play, unfortunately, lacks some lines (the speech of ‘ Primus Malus ’) at the beginning, and the first sixteen lines which have been preserved to us, written in two different metres, are additions to the York text. The next three stanzas, with the exception of the last half of the fourth, are founded on York stanzas 19 — 21, then we have an inserted speech by ‘ Quartus Mains’ (32 lines), then two more York stanzas, then the broad comedy of the Demons (stanzas 16 — 48, 11. 89 — 384), which takes the place of a short passage in York (11. 185— 228), the greater part of which is occupied by the speeches of Christ and the Apostles. After 1. 385 the bor¬ rowings begin again, and for the whole of the* Judgment-scene proper (Towneley, st. 49 — 67,11. 386 — 531= York, st. 30 — 47,11. 229 — 372), the regular 8-line stanzas of the York dramatist are only interrupted by a single insertion of four lines (st. 65). But between

XXI

The Tests of a borrowed Play.

the final dooming of the damned and the thanksgiving of the saved (1. 612 — 620), the Xovvneley play-wright inserts a long passage in which the fiends gloat over their victims, and this is all his own. Where the last stanza was taken from we cannot say. It is quite different from the York text, and bears more resemblance to the Towneley ending of the Extraccio Animarum (p. 305).

The foregoing conspectus of the points of agreement and disagree¬ ment between the Towneley and York texts of these five plays has probably been found almost as tedious to read as it certainly was to compile. But it was worth while to work it out in full, since the most cursory perusal of it must suffice to show that, in the circum¬ stances under which the borrowings took place, it was practically impossible for a play to pass from one cycle to another without showing signs of the process in marked disturbances of metre and frequent corruptions both of sense and rhyme. It follows from this that wherever we find a play (not merely a fragment) the metre of which is uniform, or is obviously varied only in correspondence with the character of the speakers, while at the same time the rhymes are regular and the text good, in the absence of positive evidence to the contrary we are not only entitled, but bound, to assume that the play was composed for the place and the cycle to which it now belongs. A play full of obvious corruptions need not be a borrowed play, because corruptions may have arisen in many other ways ; but a play which is creditably free from corruptions can hardly by any possibility have been borrowed.

Now if we apply this canon to the Towneley Plays, it will enable us to set some limit to the amount of imported work which we can safely recognize as existing in the cycle as it has come down to us. Long before the publication of the York Plays, the composite character of the Towneley was recognized by its first editor, though the reasons he assigned were less happy than his surmise itself,1 and later writers have not failed to enlarge on the point. It thus becomes interesting to see how much of the cycle we can claim on sure evidence as composed especially for it. It is no bad beginning to be able to say at once, at least one-fourth, and this the fourth which contains the finest and most original work. The evidence for

1 e. g. He says that there are no Yorkshireisms in the Pharao, which we now know to be mainly borrowed from the York cycle, and remarks “ Ccesar Augustus is plainly by the same hand as Pharao. The heroes in both swear by * Mahowne ’ ” — a habit shared by most potentates in miracle plays.

xxu

The 5 best Tenvneley Plays by a Genius.

this is irresistible. We find the Wakefield or Woodkirk editor inter¬ polating two broadly humorous scenes, the one containing 297 lines, the other 81, on the impressive York play of the Judgment. These scenes are written in a complex metre, a 9-lino stanza riming aaaa bcccb , with central rimes in the first four lines ([ should prefer to

write it -■■■■ aacdddc). and we find this same metre used with admir- bbbb h

able regularity throughout five long plays, viz. —

558 lines

502 (2 lines lost)

754 (2 lines lost)

513

450

in. Processus Noe cum filiis xii. Prima Pastorum xiii. Secunda Pastorum 1 xvi. Magnus llerodes xxi. Coliphizacio

— or, including the two passages in the Judicium , in no less than 3155 lines, occupying in this edition almost exactly 100 pages out of 396. If any one will read these plays together, I think he cannot fail to feel that they are all the work of the same writer, and that this writer deserves to be ranked — if only we knew his name ! — at least as high as Langland, and as an exponent of a rather boisterous kind of humour had no equal in his own day. We may also be sure that the two other plays, Flagellacio (No. xxii.) and Processus Talent orum (No. xxiv.), contain about the same proportion of his work as does the Judicium. They are closely akin to the Coliphizacio, and contain the one 24, the other 8 of his favourite stanzas.

For one other play which it is very tempting to assign to the same hand, the Mactacio Abel (No. n.), we lack the evidence of identity of metre ; in fact, the frequent changes from one metrical form to another would make us suspect that we had hero an instance of editing, if it were not quite impossible to isolate from the present text any underlying original. But the extraordinary boldness of the play, and the character of its humour, make it difficult to dissociate it from the work of the author of the Shepherds’ Plays, and I cannot doubt that this also, at least in part, must be added to his credit.

When the work of this man of real genius has been eliminated, the search for another Wakefield, or Woodkirk, author becomes distinctly less interesting. It will be worth while, however, now to pass the whole cycle in review, adding what notes we can to each play, especially as to their metres.

1 This play is further stamped as especially composed for the Wakefield district by the allusion to ‘ Horbury ’ noted above, p. xiv.

The List of the Towneley Plays and their Metres, xxiii

i.

ii.

hi.

IV.

{IV‘ l V.

VIII.

Creation. Couplets (aa4) and stanzas, mostly aa4b3a4b3. Connected with Barkers of Wakefield.

Abel. Metres very confused. Apparently a bold rehandling of an earlier and simpler play. Connected with [Wakefield] Glovers.

QQ Oq2

Noah. 9-line stanza c1ddd2c2. Connected with Wakefield.

bbbb2 -

Abraham, abababab4. Cp. No. xix.

Isaac. Fragments of 35 couplets (aa4).

Jacob. Fragments of 71 couplets (aa4).

[vii.] Pharaoh. abababab4cdcd3, with many corruptions. Con¬ nected with Litsters of Wakefield. Based on York xi.

. [vii I.] Processus Prophetanim. aa4b3cc4b3, less often aa4b3aa4b3 Caesar Augustus. aa4b3«ia4b3.

Annunciation. Couplets (aa4) and stanzas aa3b3ce4b3.

Salutation. aa4b3cc4b3.

/ xii. Prima Pastorum. 9-line stanza, as ill.

\xiii. Secunela Pastonim. As xn.

XIV. Magi. aaa4b2a4b2, with four disturbances. Alliterative, xv. Flight into Egypt. ababaabaab3c1b3c2. Alliterative, xvi. Herod. 9-line stanza as III., etc. xvii. Purification. aaa4b2ccc4b2 and aa4 b3cc4b3.

xviii. Doctors. abababab4cdcd3, with corruptions and interpolations. Based on York xxiii.

xix. John the Baptist, abababab4. Cp. No. iv.

xx*. Conspiracio. abababab4cdcd3. Speech of Pilate prefixed in 9-line stanzas.

xxb. Capcio. Couplets and quatrains (aa4 and abab4) with interpolations.

xxi. Coliphizacio. 9-line stanza, as hi., &c.

xxii. Flagcllacio. Mixed metres. About half the play in 9-line stanzas. xxiii. Processus Crucis. Much edited and interpolated from an original

basis of aa4b3cc4b3.

xxiv. Processus Talcntorum. Metres very confused. Much interpolation.

xxv. Extraccio Animarum. abababab4cdcd3, with additions and corrup¬

tions. Based on York xxxvii.

xxvi. Resurrection. aaa4b2a4b2, with many corruptions and interpolations. Based on York xxxvm.

xxvn. Peregrini. aaa4b2a4b'2, with corrup'ions and interpolations. xxviii. S. Thomas. aa4b3cc4b3 followed by a4b3a4b3a4b3a4b3.

xxix. Ascension. Metres very confused.

xxx. Judgment. Based ou abababab4 of York xlviii., with interpola¬

tions of abababab3 and 8-line stanzas.

Lazarus. Couplets with stanzas in several different metres. Suspencio lude. Fragment in aaa4b2a4b2. [Cp. xxvi., xxvii.]

In this conspectus, besides the plays written in the 8-line stanza, we may note that we have two fragments (Nos. iv. and v.) written in couplets on the history of Isaac, and Jacob ; two plays, the Creation (No. i.) and Annunciation (No x.), in which couplets are joined with a 6-line stanza rhyming aa4b3ec4b3, or aa4b3aa4b3, and three plays,

xxvi Groups of the Plays . Date of the Shepherds Plays.

and seem to me — though my opinion on questions of dialect is worth very little — to have been written by an author of somewhat different speech. The Abraham and John the Baptist again are in a totally different metre, and may belong to the period when the York plays were being incorporated into the cycle. As regards these York plays, enough has already been said ; but it is worth noting that the pre¬ dominant metre of the Conspiracio (xxa.) is the same as that of three out of the live plays connected with York (the Pharaoh , Doctor , and Extraccio Animarum), and may possibly be based on a lost alternative to the extant York play on this subject. A similar guess may be hazarded as to the play of the Peregrini (xxvii.), the metre of which is the same as that of the Resun'edio (Xxvi., York xxxvm.), while the obvious corruptions and interpolations of the text may well lead us to doubt its being indigenous. The fragment of the Suspencio Iudet printed at the end of the cycle, but which would naturally come immediately before the Resurredio , is in the same metre, and subject to the same hypothesis.

As regards the work of the one real genius of the Towneley cycle, the author of the two plays of the Shepherds , and of the others written in the same metre, the converse of the arguments of which we admitted the force as regards the Isaac ar.d the Jacoby will naturally lead us to assign to them as late a date as possible.

As noted by the Surtees editor, the allusion in the Judicium to the head-gear which could make a woman look ‘ horned like a cow,’ enables us to be sure that this play-wright was a younger contemporary of Chaucer. We must not, indeed, like the cataloguer of the auction-room, argue that because Stow writes that in the days of Anne of Bohemia * noble women used high attire on their heads, piked like homes/ therefore these plays may be assigned' approximately to the date of her arrival in England. I imagine that in those days as in these the fashions in the Yorkshire country¬ side were apt to be a little behind those of London ; the piked head-gear is found in manuscripts as late as about 1420 (e. g. Harl. 2897, f. 188b, and Harl. 4431, f. 2, kindly pointed out to me by Sir E. M. Thompson),1 and the other allusions of these plays, e. g. the reference to tennis Past. 736), the frequent

1 See also Lydgate’s 15th century *Dyte of Womenhis Hornys’ in his Minor Poems , Percy Soc. p. 46-9, and Harl. MSS. 2255, 2251, etc. Horns were in fashion in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries; see Fairholt’s Costume in England, ed. Dillon, 1885, ii. 224-5, and Planche’s paper therein named. — F. J. F.

Date of Shepherds' Plays. Three Stages of Toumeley Plays, xxvii

and rather learned talk about music (See. Past. 186 — 89, 656 — 60, Judicium 537, 538), and the general talk of Shepherds and Devils about the state of the country 1 — all agree very well with the early years of the fifteenth century. In a writer so full of allusions, the absence of any reference to fighting tends, I think, to show that the plays were not written during the war with France, and thus everything seems to point to the reign of Henry IY. as the most likely date of their composition. The date of our text is probably about half a century later, but the example of the York Plays shows us that in its own habitat the text of a play could be preserved in tolerable purity for a longer period than this. In the direction of popular treatment it was impossible for any editor, however much disposed towards tinkering, to think he could improve on the play- wright of the 9-line stanzas, while it is reasonable to presume that the hold of these plays on the Yorkshire audience was sufficiently strong to resist the intrusion of didactics.

As regards the only plays not yet mentioned in the survey, the Capcio (xxb.), Processus Talentorum (xxiv.), Ascension (xxixb.) and Lazarusf there has been so much editing and interpolating, and the consequent mixture of metres is so great, that it is difficult to arrive at any clear conclusion about them.2 But, subject to such corrections as the survey of the dialect now being undertaken by Dr. Matthews may suggest, I think we may fairly regard this Towneley cycle as built up in at least three distinct stages. In the first of these we find the simple religious tone which we naturally assign to the beginning of the cyclical religious drama, the majority of them being written in one of the favourite metres of the fourteenth-century romances which were already going out of fashion in Chaucer’s day.3 In the second

1 Note especially the allusions to ‘maintenance’ in Let. Past. 1. 35, and the claim of Tutivillus to be a ‘ master lollar ’ in Jud. 213.

2 The Lazarus, for instance, seems to be built up in three layers, the last of them the < rim passage on death being strikingly in the style of some of the 9-line stanzas.

8 A curious reminiscence of these romances is preserved in stanza 26 of the Processus Prophetarurn :

Now haue I songen you a fytt ; loke in mynd that ye haue it,

I rede with my myght ;

He that maide vs with his wytt,

Sheld vs all from hell pytt,

And graunt us heuen lyght

— which might have come straight out of a romance.

xxviii The three Stages , and the Home of the Townclcy Plays.

stage we have the introduction by some playwright, who brought the knowledge of them from elsewhere, of at least five — possibly seven or eight — of the plays which were acted at York, and the composition of some others in the same style. In the third stage a writer of genuine dramatic power, whose humour was unchecked by any respect for conventionality, wrote, especially for this cycle, the plays in the 9-line stanza which form its backbone, and added here and there to others. Taken together, the three stages probably cover something like half a century, ending about 1410, though subsequent editors may have tinkered here and there, as editors will, and much allowance must be made for continual corruption by the actors.

It may be as well to note here that whatever weight we may be disposed to attach to the tradition that the cycle belonged to the Woodkirk monks and was acted at Woodkirk Fair, it is impossible to believe that the plays noted in the MS. as connected with Wakefield form in any way a group by themselves, The Barkers’ play of the Creation, however much edited, belongs in its origin to our first stage ; the Pharaoh , played by the Wakefield Litsters, but based on York xi., to our second, to which also I should assign the Peregrini played by the Fishers, written in the metre of the York Resurredio. Lastly, the Noah , against which Wakefield is written, is in the 9-line stanza of the Shepherds’ Plays, and the Glovers’ play of Abel , whether re-written by the same author or not, is, in its present form, certainly late work. With the exception of the Fishers , we might say, without much exaggeration, that all the three crafts named, Dyers, Tanners, and Glovers, had some connection with the sheep, their hides and wool, which were probably the chief com¬ modities sold at the Woodkirk fair,1 and so might have taken a special interest in any pageant likely to bring customers to it. But we are bound to remember that the connection with Woodkirk is a mere tradition, and that it is quite possible that the whole cycle belongs to Wakefield, which is the only place with which it is authoritatively connected.

To bring literary criticism to bear on a cycle built up, even approximately, in the manner which I have suggested, is no easy

1 If the Fishers, as at York, were allied with the Mariners, they too might be dragged in as concerned with the export trade. If they were Fishers , * purs et simples,* one is tempted to say that they may have lent a hand at play¬ acting for the lack of sufficient employment in an inland town !

XXIX

The poetic vwrth of the Towneley Plays.

task. The plays were not written for our reading, but for the edification and amusement of the uncritical audience of their own day; and we can certainly say of them that, whatever effect the playwright aimed at, he almost always attained. Of the simply devotional plays the Annunciation seems to me the finest. The whole of this play, indeed, is full of tenderness ; and there are touches in it in which Rossetti, if he knew it, must have delighted. The reconciliation between Joseph and the Blessed Virgin is delightful; and the passage in which Joseph describes his enforced marriage is really poetically written. One verse is especially quotable :

Whan I all thus had wed hir thare.

We and my madyns home can fare,

That kyugys daughters were ;

All wroght thay sylk to find them on,

Marie wroght purpyll , the oder none lot othere colors sere.

If this touch had been entirely of the dramatist’s own invention he must, indeed, have been Rossetti’s spiritual forbear ; but it is needless to say that it comes from the apocryphal gospel of Mary, though he deserves all credit for bringing together two widely separated verses.1

The plays which I have put into my second group are on the whole very dull. The dramatist of the Abraham could not fail to attain to some pathos in the treatment of the scene between Isaac and his father ; but though he avoids the mistake of the York play¬ wright who represented Isaac as a man of thirty, his handling of the scene is distinctly inferior to that of the Brome Play and the Chester cycle. The general characteristic, indeed, of the group is, that the playwright plods perseveringly through his subject, but never rises above the level of the honest journeyman.

Between the dull work and the abounding humour and constant

1 Chap. vi. 7 : “ But the Virgin of the Lord, Mary, with seven other virgins of the same age, who had been appointed to attend her by the priest, returned to her parents’ house in Galilee;” and Chap. iv. 1 — 4: “And it came to pass, in a council of the priests it was said, ‘ Let us make a new veil for the temple of the Lord.’ And the high-priest said, ‘Call together to me seven undefiled virgins of the tribe of David.’ And the servants went and brought them unto the temple of the Lord ; and the high-priest said unto them, ‘ Cast lots before me now, who of you shall spin the golden thread, who the blue, who the scarlet, who the fine linen, and who the true purple.’ Then the high-priest knew Mary, that she was of the tribe of David ; and he called her, and the true purple fell to her lot to spin, and she went away to her own house.” (Hone’s Apocryphal Gospels , 1820.)

xxx The Writer of the Shepherds Plays probably a Monk.

allusiveness of the author of the plays in the 9-line stanza, the distance can only be measured by the two words respectability and genius. It is all the more pleasant to use the first to denote the dull level from which he keeps aloof, in that I have a strong suspicion that during his life the author of our 9-line stanza plays may have been censured for the lack of this very quality. His sympathy with poor folk, and his dislike of the “ gentlery men ” who oppressed them, seem something more than conventional ; and his satire is sometimes as grim as it is free. From his frequent allusions to music, his scraps of Latin and allusions to Latin authors, his dislike of Lollards, and the daring of some of his phrases, which seems to surpass what would have been permitted to a layman, it is probable that he was in orders ; and the vision of the Friar Tuck of Peacock’s Maid Marian rises up before me as I read his plays. As a dramatist it is difficult to praise him too highly, if we remember the limitations under which he worked, and the feeble efforts of his contemporaries and successors.

The Secunda Pastorum , the survival of which “in Archie Arm¬ strong’s Aith ” Prof. Kolbing has so pleasantly illustrated (see his Appendix), is really perfect as a work of art ; and if in the Prim a Pastorum our author was only feeling his way, and in the Noah , Herod , etc., was cramped by the natural limitation of his subject, we have the more reason to regret that a writer of such real power had no other scope for his abilities than that offered by the cyclical miracle piny. Even within these limits, however, he had room to display other gifts besides those of dramatic construction and humour. The three speeches of the Shepherds to the little Jesus are exquisite in their rustic tenderness, and even if we may not attribute to him the really terrific picture of corruption in the Lazarus , there is contrast enough between these and the denunciation of the usurers and extortioners in the Judicium. Without his aid, the Towneley cycle would have been interesting, but not more interesting than any of its three competitors. His additions entitle it to be ranked among the great works of our earlier literature.

Alfred W. Pollard.

xxxi

APPENDIX.

The Secunda Pastorum op the Towneley Plays (p. 116 ff.) and

Archie Armsthang’s Aith.

By PROF. E. KOLBING, Ph.D.

So far as I know, nobody has yet discovered that the leading incident in the Second Play of the Shepherds is repeated in quite another department of English Literature, viz. in Archie Armstrany’s Aith , by the Rev. John Marriott , printed, in * Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border/ 5th ed. vol. iii. Edinb., 1821, p. 481 if. Archie Armstrang was, as we learn from the Notes of this poem, p. 487 f., “a native of Eskdale, and contributed not a little towards the raising his clan to that pre-eminence which it long maintained amongst the Border thieves .... and there distinguished himself so much by zeal and assiduity in his professional duties, that at length he found it expedient to emigrate. ... He afterwards became a celebrated jester in the English Court. ... He was dismissed in disgrace in the year 1637. . . . The exploit detailed in this ballad has been preserved, with many others of the same kind, by tradition, and is at this time current in Eskdale.”

The story runs as follows : —

Archie has stolen a sheep, and is pursued by the shepherds, but manages to reach his house, where, with the assistance of his wife, he skins the sheep, throws its entrails and hide into the river, and stuffs the body iuto a child’s cradle. Then he sits down by it and sings a lullaby. At this very moment the pursuers enter the house and declare him to be the thief. But Archie protests, wants them to be quiet, because his child is dying, and swears an oath, that, if he has ever lessened the herds of his neighbour, he will eat the flesh that is now lying in the cradle. Besides, he gives them leave to ransack every corner of his house in order to find the sheep which they say he has stolen. So they search — naturally without result, — and the shepherds conclude that it was cither the devil himself, that they saw running off with the sheep, or that they mistook the culprit, and that Maggie Brown is the real thief. As to Archie, when the shepherds are gone, he piques himself not a little on his ability in representing a nurse ; and, at the same time, says that nobody is entitled to call him a perjurer, for he really cats up the sheep in the cradle.

xxxii Appendix. Archie Armstrang's Aith.

We see at once the striking point in the story, that the thief and his wife hide the stolen sheep from the suspicious shepherds in a cradle, is common to both versions. Besides, I ask my readers to compare the following single passages.

When the thief returns to his house, his wife is afraid that he will be discovered and tied lip ; he wants her to be quiet and to help him. Towneley , p. 126 —

Uxcr : By the nakyd nek ait thou lyke for to hyng.

Mak : Do way ....

Uxor : It were a fowtt blott to be hanged for the case.

Mak : I have skapyd, Jelott, oft as hard a glase.

Uxor: Bot so long goys the pott to the water, men says At last

Comys it home broken.

Mak : Welt knowe I the token,

Bot let it never be spoken,

Bot com and help fast.

I wold he were slayn, etc.

corresponds to Archie Armstrang's Aith , st. 6 if.

And oh ! when he stepp’d o’er the door,

His wife she look’d aghast.

“A, wherefore, Archie, wad ye slight Ilk word o’ timely warning?

I trow ye will be ta’cn the night,

And hangit i’ the morning.”

“Now hawd your tongue, ye prating wife,

And help me as ye dow ;

I wad be laith to lose my life For ae poor silly yowe.”

In Town., p. 130, the thief’s wife gives the following advice —

Harken ay, when thay calle : thay will com anone.

Com and make redy alle, and syng by thyn oone,

Syng lullay thou shalle ....

Syng lullay on fast,

When thou lieris at the last.

According to Archie Armstrang's Aith , st. 13 f., Archie performs this skilful service —

And down sat Archie daintillie,

And rock’d it wi’ his hjvnd ;

Siccan a rough nourice as ae Was not in a’ the land.

And saftlie he began to croon ,

“ Hush, hushabye, my dear.”

He hadna sang to sic a tunc,

I trow, for mony a year.

Appendix. Archie Arrnstrang's Aith. xxxiii

For the rhyme croon : tune we may compare the following lines in the conversation of the shepherds in front of Mali’s hut (p. 131) —

Tertius Pastor : Witt ye here how thay hak ? Oure syre, lyst, croyne /

Primus Pastor : Hard I never none crak so clere out of toy ue.

In Towneley , p. 133, Uxor says — -

I pray to God so mylde,

J f ever I you begyld,

That I ete this chylde,

That lygys in this eredytt.

Likewise in Archie Arrnstrang's Aith , st. 18, the husband —

If e’er I did sae fause a feat,

As thin my neebor’s fauids,

May I doom’d the flesh to eat This Vera cradyl halds !

In both versions the shepherds, not having found anything, believe they Lave made a mistake ; Town., p. 134 —

Primus Pastor : We have merkyd amys : I hold us begyld.

Archie Arrnstrang's Aith , st. 22 —

Or aiblins Maggie’s ta’en the yowe,

And thus beguiled your e’e.

The principal difference between the two versions of the same story is, that in the play the thief, in spite of this trick, is finally discovered and punished by lynch-law, whilst according to the ballad the thief and his wife succeed in their plot, and the suspicion falls upon another. It is in harmony with this difference that the seemingly not real¬ izable oath is only of a secondary interest in the play, while in the ballad it forms the centre of the whole.

Now the only MS. of the Towneley Plays seems to have been written in the beginning of the fifteenth century, whilst Archie Arm¬ strong's Aith, belonging to the “ Imitations of the ancient ballad,” was scarcely composed long before 1802, in which year the Minstrelsy ’ made its first appearance in the literary world. It is most unlikely that John Marriott, — who, according to Allibone’s Dictionary, was Curate of Broad- Clift, Devon, and Rector of Church Liford, War¬ wickshire, and in 1820 and 1836 published some collections of sermons, — borrowed this story from the then un printed MS. of the Towneley Plays and transferred it, of his own authority, to Archie Armstrang, so that the whole of his notes were a forgery.1 It is much

1 It is perhaps worth noting that the Secunda Pastorum was printed in the Collection of English Miracle Plays published at Basel in 1838 by a Dr. William Marriott, who may possibly have been a relation of the Rev. John Marriott of Prof. Kolbing’s ballad.— A. W. P.

C

XXXIV

Appendix. Archie Armstrang's Aith.

more credible that this funny tale was preserved by oral traditions, possibly in a metrical form. The tale was first brought into the Christmas story by the author of the Towneley Play, and afterwards, in the seventeenth century, transferred to the famous thief and jester, Archie Armstrong.

Whether the happy or unhappy end of the story is to be considered as the original one, is a question, which, in the want of other materials, we shall perhaps never be able to solve with any certainty.1

This little paper is englislit from the original in the Zeitsclirift fihr vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, herausgegeben von M. Koch. Neue Folge. Elf ter Band, p. 137 ff. — E. K.

1 As “bang went saxpence” would have been the result of the Shepherds kissing the babe in the cradle, I suggest that Scotch shepherds, at any rate, would never have thought of incurring such an awful liability. — F. J. F.

THE TOWNELEY PLAYS.

[267 lines, in stanzas and couplets. Stanzas 12 — 15 have 10 (i aabab aabab), 7 (aab ab ab ), 5 and 5 ( aabab ) lines respectively , the rest 6 (aab ccb). ]

Deus.

Cherubyn.

Lucifer.

[Dramatis Personae.

An'/eli Mali 1 et 2.1 Demones 1 et 2.1

Angcli Boni 1 ct 2. Adam.

Eua.\

In dei nomine amen.

Assit Prcncipio, Saracfa Maria, Meo. Wakefeld.

[Scene I. Heaven.']

[Deus]

(i)

Ego sum alpha et* o,

I am the first*, the last* also, Oone god in mageste ; Meruelus, of myght* most, ffader>, & son), & holy goost,

On) god in tr/nyte.

(2)

I am without begynnyng*,

My godhede hath none endyng*, I am god in troue ;

Oone god in persons thre, Which may neuer tvvynnyd be, fFor) I am) god alone.

(3)

AH maner thyng* is in my tlioght, Withoutten) me ther may be noght, ffo^ aH is in my sight ; hit* shaH be done after’ my wiH, that I haue tlioght I sliaH fulfiH And manteyn) with my myght*.

1 These may be the same.

BARKERS.

3

6

9

12

15

18

[Fol. 1, a.l God declares His nature ft might.

Nothing nifty exist with¬ out Him.

2

Towneley Plays. I. The Creation.

God begins the work of creation.

The 1st day : the parting of darkness & light.

The 2nd day : the firma¬ ment divides the waters.

The 3rd day : the division of earth & sea.

The earth to bring forth fruit.

The 4th day : creation of sun & moon.

(4)

At the begynnyng4 of oure dede make we heuen) & erth, on brede, and lyghtys fayre to se, ffoiJ it is good! to be so ; darknes from) light we parte on two,

In tyme to serue and be.

(5)

Darknes we caH the nyght*, and lith also the bright1,

It* shall be as I say ; aftei* my wiH this is furth broght*, Euen) and morne both ai* thay wroght1, and thus is maid a day.

(6)

In medys the water, bi oure assent*, be now maide the firmament*,

And parte athei^ from) othere, Water aboue, I-wis ;

Euen) and morne maide is this A day, [so was] the tothere.

(7)

Waters, that* so wyde ben) spred, be gedered to geder in to one stede, that* dry the erth may seym) ; that* at* is dry the erth shall be, the waters also I caH the see ; this warke to me is querne.

(8)

Out* of* the erth herbys shal spryng*, Trees to florish and frute furth bryng*, thare kynde that it* be kyd.

This is done after my WiH ;

Even) & morn) maide is ther* tiH A day, this is the thryd.

(9)

Son) & moyne set in the heuen),

With starnes, & the planettys seuen), To stand in thare degre ;

21

24

27

30

33

36

39

42

45

IMS. thyrd.] 48

51

3

Towncley Plays. I. The Creation.

The soil) to seme the day lyght1,

The moyne also to serue the nyght1 ;

The fonrte day sliaH this he. 54

(10)

The water to norish the fysh swyrnand,

The erth to norish besty*? crepeand,

That* fly or* go may. 57

Multi plye in erth, and be In my blyssyng1, wax now yo ;

This is the fyft1 day. 60

(11)

Cherubyn\ Oure lord god in trynyte,

Myrth and lovyng1 be to the,

Myrth and lovyng1 ouer al thyng1 ;

ffoiJ thou has made1, with thi bidyng*, 64

Heuen), & erth, and all that is,

and gif fen) vs Ioy that1 neuer shall mys.

Lord, thou) art full mych of4 myght,

that1 has maide lucifer so bright ; 68

we loue the, lord, bright1 aiJ we,

bot none of1 vs so bright1 as he :

He may well hight lucifere,

fTo^ lufly light that1 he doth here. 72

He is so lufly and so bright It is grete ioy to se that1 sight ;

We lofe the, lord, with aH oure thoght1,

that sich thyng1 can) make of noght. 7 6

hie deus recedit a suo solio fy lucifer sedehit in eode m solio.

(12)

Lucifer\ Cert ys, it1 is a semely sight, 77

Syn that1 we ai* aH angels bright, and euer in blis to be ;

If1 that1 ye wiH behold? me right,

this mastre longys to me. 81

I am so fare and bright, of me cowmys aH this light1, this gam) and all this gle ;

1 The words “has made” are in a latei hand, the originals having been obliterated.

Thu 5th day : the creation of fish &

“ creeping beasts that may fly or go.” {Cp.

11. 162, 163.J

[Fol. 1, b.J Cherubim praise God.

He has made all of them bright, but Lucifer brightest.

Lucifer prides him¬ self on his brightness it strength.

4

Who shall be above him in heaven ?

He is so seemly he will take God’s throne as King of bliss.

fHe seats himself &] aBks the angels how he looks.

The bad praise, and the good warn him.

Towneley Plays. I. The Creation .

Agans my grete myght*

1 may [no]thyng* stand [ne] be. 86

(13)

And ye weH me behold I am a thowsand fold?

brighter then) is the son) ; my strengthe may not be told,

my myght may no thyng* kon ;

In heuen, therfoi,), wit I wold!

Above me who shuld won). 93

(14)

ffor> I am lord of blis, ouer aH this warld, I-wis,

My myrth is most of1 aH ; the[r]for) my will is this,

master) ye shall me caH. 98

(15)

And ye shall se, fuH sone onone,

How that me semys to sit1 in trone as kyng* of blis ;

I am) so semely, blode & bone,

my sete shall be ther) as was his. 103

(16)

Say, felows, how semys now me To sit in sey te of tryuyte 1 I am so bright* of* ich a lym)

I trow me seme as weH as liym). 107

pvhnus angelus malus. Thou) art* so fayre vnto my syght,

thou) semys well to sytt on) bight* ;

So thynke me that thou doyse. primus bonus angelus. I rede ye leyfc that vanys royse, 111

ffor> that* seyte may non) angeH seme So weH as hym) that* aH shaH deme.

&ecuiu?us bonus angelus. I reyde ye sese of that ye sayn), ffoiJ weH I wote ye carpe in vayne ; 115

hit semyd hym) neuer, ne neuer shaH,

So weH as hym) that has maide aH.

1 MS. may thyng* stand then) be.

5

Towneley Plays. I. The Creation.

Szcnndns mains, angeAns. Now, and bi oght that I can) witt, he semys fuH weft theron) to sy tt ; 119

He is so fayre, wit/ioutteri) les, lie semys fuH well to sytt1 on) des. therfor>, felow, hold thi peasse,

and vmbithynke the what thou) saysse. 123

he semys as weH to sytt there as god hymself1, if he were here.

Lucifer*. leyf felow, thynk the not1 sol 126

primus mains ange lus. Yee, god wote, so dos othere mo. pTimns bon us [Angelus]. Nay, forsoth, so thynk not vs. lucifer\ Now, tlierof a leke what rek?/a* vs 1 Syn) I my self am so bright

therfoiJ wiH I take a flyght1.1 131

Tunc exibunt demones clamando , & dicit primus,

[Scene II. Hell.]

primus demon \ Alas, alas, and wele-wo ! lucifer*, whi feH thou so 1 We, that-were angels so fare,

and sat so hie aboue the ay ere, 135

Now ai* we waxen) blak as any coyll, and vgly, tatyrd as a foytt.

What1 alyd the, lucifer, to fall 1

was thou) not farist of1 angels aH1 139

Brightist1, and best, & most1 of1 luf1

With god hym) self, that sytt ys aboyf1 1

thou) has maide [neyn,2] there was [ten,8]

thou) art1 foull comyn from) thi kyn); 143

thou) art1 fallen), that1 was the teynd,

ffrom) an angeH to a feynd.

thou) has vs doyn a vyle dispyte,

and broght1 thi self1 to sorow and sitt1. 147

Alas, theiJ is noght els to say

bot1 we ar* tynt1 for* now and ay. 149

Secundus demon. — Alas, the ioy that1 we were In haue we lost1, for oure syn).

1 A scribe has mistaken Lucifer’s boastful flight for his fall. One or more stanzas containing either a speech of Deus (cp. Chester and Coventry Plays) or the exclamations of the devils as they fall (cp. York Plays) must have been omitted.

8 MS. ix.

The bad angels think him ns fit to sit in God’s seat ns God Himself.

[Fol. 2, a.]

Lucifer gays he will take a flight.1

The devils

reproach

Lucifer.

They are waxen blaok as coal.

He has made nine where there were ten [i.e. a tenth part of each order of angels has fallen. Cp. 11. 256, 257].

3 MS. X.

6

We may curse our wicked pride : " so may ye all that stand beside.”

God pro¬ ceeds to make man.

He gives him know¬ ledge,

strength, the government of the world, & paradise to dwell in.

Towneley Plays. I. The Creation.

alas, that* euer cam pride in thoghf,

floi* it has broght vs nH to noght. 153

We were in myrth and Ioy enogtle

When lucifer to pWde drogh.

Alas, we may warrie wikkyd pride,

so may ye aH that* stand ys be side ; 157

We held* with by m) ther> he saide leasse,

and therfor* haue we aH vnpeasse.

Alas, alas, oure Ioye is tynt*,

We mon) haue payne that* neuer shaH stynt*. 161

[Scene III. Earth.]

(17)

Deus. — Erthly bestys, that may crepe and go, bryng ye furth and wax ye mo,

I se that* it* is good ; 164

now make we man to oure liknes, that* shaH be keper of more & les,

of* fowles and fysh in flood*. Et] taw/efl ewm. 167

(18)

spreyte of* life I in the blaw, good and iH both shaH thou) knaw ;

rise vp, and stand bi me. 170

AH that* is in water or land,

If shaH bow vnto thi hand,

and sufferan) shaH thou be ; 173

(19)

I gif* the witf, I gif the strenght, of* aH thou sees, of brede & length© ;

thou shaH be wonder wise. 176

Myrth and Ioy to haue at wiH,

AH thi likyng to fulfiH,

and dweH in paradise. 179

(20)

This I make thi wonnyng playce, ffuH of* myrth and of solace,

and I seasse the therin. 182

If is nof good to be alone, to walk here in this worthely won©,

In aH this welthly wyn);

185

Towneley Plays. I. The Creation.

7

(21)

therfor*, a rib I from the take, thcrof1 shaH be [maide] thi make,

And be to thi holpyng*. 188

Ye both to gouerne that1 here i3, and euer more to be in blis,

ye wax in my blissyng1. 191

(22)

ye shaR have Ioye & blis therin, whils ye wiH kepe you) out of syn),

I say wttAout[ten] lese. 194

Ryse vp, myn) angeR cherubyn), [Foi. 2, b.]

Take and leyd theym) both in,

And leyf1 them) there in peasse. 197

Tunc capit] cherubyn) atlnm }iev manual , dicit) eis

rfominttf,

(23)

Heris thou adam, and eue thi wife,

I forbede you the tre of1 life,

And I cowimaund, that1 it1 be gat1,

Take which ye wiR, bot1 negh not* that1. 201

Adam, if1 thou breke my rede, thou) shaR dye a dulfuR dede.

Cherubyn). Oure lord, ouro god, thi wiR be done ;

I shaR go with theym) fuH sone. 205

ffoiJ sotti, my lord, I shaR not sted

tiR I haue theym) theder led.

we thank the, lord, with fuR good chere,

that1 has maide man to be oure feere. \Exit Deus.] 209

Com furth, adam, I shaR the leyd ;

take tent1 to me, I shaR the reyd*.

I rede the thynk how thou art1 wroght, and luf my lord? in aR thi thoght, 213

That1 has maide the thrugh his wiR, angels crdii'* to fulfiR.

Many tliyngys he has the giffen), and maide the master* of1 aR that1 liffen) ;

He has forbert the bot1 a tre ; look that thou) let it be,

God makes woman to be man’s helping.

And bids an angel lead them to paradise.

God forbids Adam and Eve the tree of life.

The Angel

instructs

Adam.

217

8

Toumeley Plays . I. The Creation .

Adam and Eve con¬ gratulate themselves * thank God.

Adam bids Eve keep away from the Tree of Life.

ffor* if* thou breke his conimaundment,

thou) skapys not1 hot* thou be shent. 221

Weynd here in to paradise,

and luke now that* ye be wyse,

And kepe you) weH, foiJ I must1 go vnto my lord, ther> I cam) fro. [ Exit Cherubyn).] 225

Adam\ Almyghty lord, I thank* it the that1 is, and was, and shall be,

Of thi luf1 and of1 thi grace,

ffoi^ now is here a mery place ; 229

Eue, my felow, how thynk the this 1

Eua. A stede me thynk of1 Ioye and blis,

That1 god has giffen) to the and me ;

Withoutten) ende blissyd be he.

Adam*. Eue, felow, abide me thore, ffor> I will go to viset more,

To se what trees that1 here been) ; here ar) well moo then) we have seen),

Gres ys} and othere small floures, that1 smell fuH swete, of seyr> coloures.

Eua. Gladly, air , I will fuH fayne ;

When) ye haue sene theym), com) agane.

Adam\ Bot1 luke weH, eue, my wife, that1 thou) negli not the tree of1 life ; ffor* if1 thou) do he bese iH paide ; then be we tynt1, as he has saide.

Eua. Go furth and play the aH aboute,

I shaH not1 negh it1 while thou) art1 oute ; ffor* be thou sekyr* I were fuH loth ffoi* any thyng that1 he were wroth. [Exeunt Adam Eve.]

233

237

241

245

[Scene IY. Hell.]

LuciferK Who wend euer this tyme haue seyn) 1

The tenth We, that in sich myrth haue beyn),

order of

angels is That we shuld suitre so mycn wo]

Who wold euer trow it1 shuld be so 1 [x Ten] orders in heuen were of* angels, that1 had offyee sere ;

Of ich order’, in thare degre,

the [2 teynd] parte feH downe with me ;

1 MS. X. 2 MS. x.

253

257

9

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

ffoP thay held with me that1 tyde, and mantenyd me in my p?,tde ; Bot4 herkyns, felows, what I say — - the Ioy that we haue lost for ay,	261
God has maide man with his hend, to liaue that4 blis wtt/toutten end, The 1 neyn ordre to fulfill, that4 after* vs left, sich is his will.	265
And now ar* thay in paradise ; bot4 thens thay shaft, if we be wise.	267

The MS. has apparently lost 12 leaves here, containing (no doubt) the Temptation of Eve and the Expulsion of her and Adam from Paradise.

(ii.)

Mactacio abel. Sectmda pagina.

[473 lines in thirtecns ( aaab ccecb bdbd, no. 1), twelves ( aaab cccb bdbd, no. 3), elevens ( aab cccb , no 2 — or aaab ccb, no. 7 — bdbd), nines, eights ( aaab bebe, no. 6, or cccb, no. 10 ; aaa bbb cc, no. 14), sevens ( aaab ccb, no. 4 ; aab ab cc, no. 16), sixes, fives (aa bbb, no. 5), fours ( ab ab, no. 13), threes and twos. ]

\ Dramatis Personae.

Oarcio. Cayn. Abel. Deus.]

Garcio. (1) Glover Pag.2...

Aft hayft, aft liayft, both blithe and glad, if or* here com I, a mery lad ; be peasse youre dyn, my master* bad,

Or* els the dwift you spede. 4

Wote ye not1 1 com before 1 Bot who that1 Ianglis any more He must* blaw my blak hoift bord, both behyndf and before,

Tift his tethe blede. 9

ffelows, here I you forbede

To make nother nose ne cry ;

Who so is so hardy to do that1 dede

The dwift 3 hang hym vp to dry.

1 MS. ix. 2 In a later hand.

* MS. dewill ; the “e” having been overlined by a later hand.

God has made man to fill its place.

[Fbl. 3, a. |

Garcio makes a ranting speech.

13

10

His master is a good yeoman :

ill to quarrel with.

Cain calls to his mare.

Pull on a bit, you shrew.

You're the worst mare I ever liad in plough.

He calls the Boy.

They

wrangle.

Townelcy Plays. 11. The Killing of Abel,

(2)

Gedlyngts, I am a fuHe grete wat,

A good yoman my master* hat1,

ffuH woH ye aH hym ken) ; 16

Begyn he with you for to stryfe, certis, then mon ye neuer thryfe ;

Bot1 I trow, bi god on life,

Som of1 you ar* his men. 20

Bot1 let1 youre lippis cone?* youre ten, harlotU's, eueriehon !

ffor if* my masted com, welcom) hym theii). ffareweH, for* I am gone. [Exit Garcio.] 24

[Enter Cain, ploughing.]

(3)

Cayn\ Io furtli, greyn-horne ! and wai* oute, gryme I Drawes on ! god gif you iH to tyuie !

Ye stand as ye were fallen in swyme ;

What1 ! wiH ye no further*, mare 1 28

War ! let1 me se how down) wiH draw ;

Yit1, shrew, yit1, putt on a tliraw !

What1 ! it1 semys for* me ye stand none aw !

I say, donnyng, go fare ! 32

A, ha ! god gif the soro & care ! lo ! now hard she what I saide ;

now yit1 art thou the warst mare In plogh that1 euer I haide. 36

w

How ! pike-harnes, how ! com heder belife I

[Enter GarcioG

Garcio. I fend, godzs forbot, tha* euer thou thrife 1 Cayn. What1, boy, shal I both hold and drife 1 39

heris thou not how I cry 1 Garcio. Say, maH and stott, will ye not1 go 1 Lemyng1, moreH, white-horne, Io !

now will ye not se how thay hy 1 43

(5)

Cayn\ Gog gif the sorow, boy ; want1 of mete it gars. Garcio. thare prouand, sir, for* thi, I lay behynd thare ars, And tyes them fast bi the nekts,

With many stanys in thare hekts.

Cayn\ That1 shall bi thi fals cliekis.

Pol. 8, b.J

48

11

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

(6)

Gar do. And haue agane as riglit.

Cayn. I am thi master, wilt thou fight 1 Gardo. Yai, with the same mesure and weght That* I b ro wiH I qwite.

Cayn . We ! now, no thyng4, hot* call on tyte, that we had ployde this land.

Gardo. harrer5, moreft, iofurth, hyte ! and let the plogh stand.

[Enter Abel.]

(O

Abe ft. God, as he both may and can,

Spede the, brother5, & thi man.

Cayn. Com kis myne ars, me list not ban,

As welcom standis ther5 oute.

Thou shuld haue bide til thou were cald ;

Com nai5, & other* drife or* hald, and kys the dwillis toute.

Go grese thi shepe vnder5 the toute, ffor that* is the moste lefe.

Al)e\i. broder5, ther5 is none here aboute that1 wold the any grefe ;

(8)

hot1, leif4 brothel, here my sawe —

It4 is the custom of4 oure law,

Aft that4 wyrk as the wise shaft worship god wtt/i sacrifice.

Oure fader5 vs bad, oure fade?- vs kend, that4 oure tend shuld be brend.

Com furth, brothere, and let vs gang To worship god ; we dweft full lang4 ;

Gif4 we hym pa?*te of oure fee,

Come oi* cataft, wlieder it4 be.

(9)

And thcrfoi5, brothel, let vs weyhd,

And first4 clens vs from the feynd or5 we make sacrifice ;

Then blis wttAoutten end get we for5 oure seruyce,

49 Cain offers to fight him.

The Boy is quite ready.

56

57 Abel bids

them God speed.

60 Cain tells him he isn’t wanted.

63

67

Al>el exhorts him to come & make burnt-offer* ings of his

n tenths of corn & cattle.

75

77

82

12

Cain will none of his sermoning.

He won’t leave his plough Si his work. God only gives him sorrow Si woe.

[Fol. 4, a.]

Abel says their elders have told them they must tithe Si. make burnt- offering.

Cain replies he is worse off each year.

Tmmeley Plays . II. The Killing of Abel.

(10)

Of hym that1 is oure saulis leche. 83

Cayn\ How ! let* furtli youre geyse, the fox wiH preche ; How long wilt thou me appech

With thi sermonyng*! 86

Hold thi tong*, yit I saj%

Euen ther* the good wife strokid the hay ;

Or* sit downe in the dwiH way,

With thi vayn carpyng*. 90

(ii)

Shuld I leife my plogh & aft thyng And go with the to make offeryng 1 Hay ! thou fyndys me not* so mad ! Go to the dwift, and say I bad !	94
W hat* gifys god the to rose hym so 1 me gifys he noght* bot* soro and wo.	96

(12)

Abe\i. Caym, leife this vayn carpyng, ffor* god giffys the att thi lifyng.

CaynK Yit* boroed I neuer a farthyng 99

of* hym, here my hend.

AbelH. Brother*, as elders haue vs kend, ffirst shuld* we tend with oure hend*, and to his lofyng* sithen be brend. 103

(13)

Cayn\ My farthyng is in the preest hand syn last tyme I offyrd.

Abe H. leif brother*, let vs be walkand ;

I wold oure tend were profyrd. 107

(14)

Cayn]. We ! wherof* shuld I tend, leif* brothers 1 ffor* I am icli yere wars then othere,

here my trouth it* is none othere ;	no
My wynnyngfs ar* bot meyn),
No wonder if* that* I be leyn ;
fluH long till hym I may me meyn),	113
ffoiJ bi hym that me dere boght,
1 traw that* he will leyn me noght.	115

13

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel . (15)

Abe\{. Yis, all the good thou has in wone Of god is grace is hot a lone.

CayrD. Lenys he me, as com thrift1 apon the so ? f¥oiJ he has euer yit1 beyn my fo ; 119

ffor* had he my freynd? beyn,

Other* gat is it* had beyn seyn).

When aH mens corn was fayre in feld

Then was myne not1 worth a neld 1 ; 123

When I shuld saw, & wantyd seyde,

And of corn had fuH grete neyde,

Then gaf he me none of* his,

No more wilt I gif hym of this. 127

hardely hold me to blame

bot1 if I serue hym of the same.

Abe H. Leif brother*, say not* so, hot let vs furth togeder go ; 131

Good brother, let vs weynd sone, no longer* here I rede we hone.

Cayn\ Yei, yei, thou Xangyls waste ; the dwiH me spede if I haue hast, 135

As long as I may lif , to dele my good or* gif Ather to god or* yit1 to man),

of any good that1 euer I wan) ; 139

ffoi* had I giffen away my goode^ then myght I go with a ryffen) hood,

And it is better* hold that1 1 haue

then go from doore to doore & craue. 143

AbeYt. Brothei1*, com furth, in godts name,

I am full ferdf that1 we get blame ;

Hy we fast1 that1 we were thore.

Cayn\ We ! ryn on), in the d wills nay me Before ! 147 Wemay, man, I hold the mad ! wenys thou now that1 I list gad To gif away my warldts aght1 1 the dwiH hym spede that me so taght ! what1 nede had I my traueH to lose, to were my shoyn & ryfe my hosel

1 MS. an eld.

God has always been his foe.

His own corn is the worst of anybody’s.

He is in no haste to give.

If he had

Sven away s good he might go with a tom hood.

Better keep, than beg.

[Fol. 4, b.J He thinks Abel mad.

151

14

Abel doesn’t want to go without Inin.

1 see I must come then. Go on be¬ fore.

Let us go together, says Abel.

You tithe first, says Cain.

Abel burns his tithes.

Cain begins tithing.

Towneley Flays. II The Killing of Abel.

AbcW.. Dure brother*, hit were grete wonder that I & thou slitild go in sonder*, 155

Then wold oure fa 'er hauc grete fcrly ;

Ar* we not brether*, thou & II

Cayu\ No, bot* cry on, cry, whyls the thynk good; Here my trowth, I hold the woode; 159

Wlieder that* he be blithe or* wroth to dele my good is me fuH lotlie.

I hauc gone oft* on softer* wise

tlier* I trowed som prow wold rise. 163

Bot* weH I se go must* I nede ;

now weynd before, iH myght* thou spede !

syn that* we sliaH algatw go.

Abe H. leif* brother*, wlii sais thou sol 167

Bot* go we furth both togeder ; bliss id? be god we haue fare weder.

Cayn\ lay downe thi trusseH apon this liiH.

Abe)b. fforsoth broder, so I will : 171

Gog of* heuen, take it* to good*.

Cayn\ Thou shaH tend first if thou were wood.

Abe H. God that* shope both erth and heuen),

I pray to the thou here my steven), 175

And take in thank, if thi wiH be, the tend that I off re here to the ;

Ifor* I gif* it* in good entent*

to the, my lord, that aH has sent. 179

I bren it now, with stedfast thoght,

In worship of* hyni that* aH has wroght.

Cayn\ Ryse ! let* me now, syn thou has done ; lord of* heuen, thou here my boyne ! 183

And ouer, god is forbot*, be to the thank oi* thew to kun me ; fTor*, as browke I thise two shankys,

It is fuH sore, myne vnthankys, 187

The teynd that* I here gif* to the, of* corn, oi* thyng, that* newys me ;

Bot now begyn wiH I then, syn I must* nede my tend to bren).

Oone shefe, oone, and this makys two, hot* nawder of* thise may I forgo :

191

15

Towncley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

Two, two, now this is thre, yei, this also shaH leif* with me : ffor’ I wiH chose and best* haue, this hold I thrift* of* aH this thrafe ;

Wemo, wemo, foure, lo, here ! better groved me no this yere.

At* yere tyme I sew fayre corn, yit was it sich when it* was shorne,

Thystyls & brerys, yei grete plente,

And aH kyn wedts that myght be, ffoure shefts, foure, lo, this makt# fyfe — deyH I fast* thus long or> 1 thrife — ffyfe and sex, now this is sevyn, hot* this gett is neuer god of* heuen ; 207

NoiJ none of* tliise foure, at* my myght, shaH neuer com in godts sight*.

Sevyn, sevyn, now this is aglit*,

Abe H. Cain, brother*, thou art* not* god betaght*. 211 Cayn. We ! therfoiJ is if thaf I say, fifor I wiH nof deyle my good away :

Bof had I gyffen) hym this to teynd

Then wold thou say he were my Freynd ; 215

Bof I thy nk nof, bi my hode,

To departe so lightly fro my goode. we ! aghf, aght*, & neyn, & ten is this, we ! this may we best mys. 219

Gif* hym thaf thaf ligts tliore 1

If goyse agans myn harf fuH sore. 221

(16)

Abe H. Cam ! teynd righf of* aH bedeyn.

Cayn. we ! lo twelve, fyfteyn, sexteyn 1 Abe H. Caym, thou tendw wrang*, and of* the warst*. CaynK we ! com nar>, and hide myne een) ;

In the wenyand wisf ye now at last, 226

Of els wiH thou that I wynk 1

then shaH I doy no wrong, me thynk. 228

(17)

lef me se now how if is — lo, yif I hold me paido ;

I tcyndyd wonder weH bi ges,

And so euen I laide. 232

1 MS. xij, xv, xv?.

195

199

203

He choose* & keeps the best for himself, grumbling all the time.

Cain keeps on counting. [The re]»eti- tion.of the numbers may mean that he counts 20 sheaves as 10, so as to pay a 20th instead of a 10th.}

[Fol. 5, a. Sig. C. 1.}

We may best do without this one.

Abel tells him he is tithing wrongly & of the worst

D

16

Devil speed me if he get a sheaf more.

I had many a weary back in getting this.

Never you mind how I’m titliing.

Here are two sheaves, and that must do.

Cease your jangling.

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

(18)

Abetii. Came, of god me thynke thou has no drede. Came. Now and he get more, the dwiH mo spede !

As mych as oone reepe,

SW that cam hym full light chepo ; 236

Not as mekiH, grete ne small, as he myglit wipe his ars with aH. ffor) that1, and this that lyys here,

haue cost me full dere ; 240

OiJ it was sliorne, and broght in stak, had I many a wery bak ;

Therfor) aske me no more of1 this,

ffor> I haue giffen that1 my will is. 244

Abe 11. Cam, I rede thou tend right* ffof drede of* hym that* sittts on hight*.

Cayn\ How that* I tend, rek the neuer *a deiH, bot* tend thi skabbid shepe wele ; 248

ffof if* thou to my teynd tent* take,

It* bese the wars for* thi sake.

Thou wold I gaf* hym this shefe, or’ this sheyfe ;

11a, nawder of* thise [two wil I leife ; 252

Bot take this, now has he two, and foi* my sauH now mot* it* go,

Bot* it gos sore agans my will,

and slial he like full iH. 256

A5eR. Cam, I reyde thou so teynd that* god of lieuen be thi freynd.

Cayn\ My freynd 1 na, not* bot* if* he will !

I did hym neuer yit* hot* skill. 260

If* lie be neuer so my fo,

I am avisid? gif* hym no mo ;

Bot* chaunge thi conscience, as I do myn), yit* teynd thou not* thi mesel swyne 1 264

Abe R. If* thou teynd right thou mon) it fynde.

Cayn. Yei, kys the dwiRs ars beliynde ;

The dwiR hang the bi the nek !

how that I teynd, neuer thou rek. 268

WiH thou not* yit hold thi pcasse 1 of* this Ianglyng I reyde thou seasse.

And teynd I weR, or> tend I iR, here the euen & speke bot* skiR.

1 MQ ii

272

17

Tovmcley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

[Fol. 6, a. Sig. C. 2.] l

276

280

Bot now syn thou has teyndid fchyne,

Now wiH I set fyi* on myne.

We ! out4 ! haro ! help to blaw I It* wiH: not1 bren for) me, I traw ;

Puf4 ! this smoke dos me mych shame — now bren, in the dwittys name !

A ! what* dwin of heft is it ?

Almost had myne breth beyn ditf. had I blawen) oone blast more I had beyn choked right4 thore ;

It4 stank like the dwift in heft, that longer ther) myght I not dweft.

Abeft. Cam, this is not4 worth oone leke ; thy tend shuld bren w/t/ioutten) smeke.

Caym\ Com kys the dwift right4 in the ars, for’ the it4 brens bot4 the wars ;

I wold that4 it were in thi throte,

ffyi^, & shefe, and ich a sprote. [God appears above. J

Deus. Cam, whi art4 thou so rebeft Agans thi brother) abeft 1 292

284

288

Thar* thou nowther* flyte ne chyde, if4 thou tend right4 thou gettis thi mede ;

And be thou sekir*, if4 thou teynd fals,

thou bese alowed ther* after als. [Exit Deus.] 296

(19)

Caym\ Whi, who is that4 hob-ouer-the-waft 1 we ! who was that4 that4 piped so smaft ?

Com go we hens, for* perels aft ;

God is out4 of4 hys wit4. 300

Com furth, abeft, & let4 vs weynd ;

Me thynk that4 god is not4 my freynd,

on land then will I flyt. 303

(20)

Abeft. A, Cayrn, brotlier>, that4 is ill done.

Cayn\ No, bot4 go we hens sone ;

1 The writer of MS. has by mistake continued his lines on Fol. 6 a, instead of fol. 5 b, and has made a note in red ink on top of fol. 5 b. as follows ; — “ [M]d that4 this sydc of4 the leyfe [sh]uld* folow the other next4 syde [ac]cordyng to the tokyns hero maide, [au]d* then after al stondys in ordre.”

He sets Are to his offer¬ ing.

Cain’s offer¬ ing won’t burn, but almost chokes him with smokeu

Abel says it is no good.

Cain reviles him.

God reproves Cain. As he tithes so shall he receive.

Cain scoffs at God. “Who is that liob-over- the-wallf"

Abel is shocked.

18

He says he will go to liis beasts.

Cain stops him and says it is time to pay Abel what he owes him.

Why did vour tithe burn A not mine?

I will take your life for it with this cheek bone.

Abel cries for venge¬ ance.

If any one thinks he did amiss, Cain will make things worse.

[Fol. 5, b.]

But now that Abel is brought to sleep he would fain creep into a hole for 40 days.

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Ahcl,

And if* 1 may, I shaft bo

ther* as god shaft not* me see. 307

Abe H. Dere brother*, I wift fayre on feld ther* oure best/s ar*,

To looke if* thay be liolgh or* fuft.

Caym’. Ha, na, abide, we haue a craw to putt ; 311

Hark, speke with me or* thou go ; what ! wenys thou to skape so 1 we ! na ! I aghf the a fowft dispyte, and now is tyme that I hit qwite. 315

Abel. Brothei’, whi art* thou so to me in Ire?

CaijmK we ! tlieyf*, whi brend thi tend so shyre 1 Tlier* myne did hot* smoked

right* as it wold vs both haue choked. 319

Abel. God is wift I trow it* were that* myn brened so clere ;

1 If* thyne smoked am I to wite ?

CaymK we ! yei ! that shal thou sore abite ; 323

with cheke bon, oi’ that I blyn,

shal I the & thi life twyn ; [Gain kills Abel.]

So lig down thei’ and take thi rest,

thus shaft shrewes be chastysed best 327

(21)

AbeW.. Yeniance, veniance, lord, I cry 1 for* I am slayn, & not* gilty.

Cayn\ Yei, ly ther* old shrew, ly ther*, ly ! 330

(22)

And if* any of* you thynk I did amys I shal it* amend wars then it* is,

that* aft men may it* se : 333

weft wars then it* is

right* so shaft if be. 335

(23)

Bof now, syn he is Broght on Slepe,

Into Som) hole fayn wold I crepe ; ffor ferd I qwake and can no rede, ffor be I taken, I be bot dede ; 339

1 Originally written “I am not to wite" ; "7” and "no*" have been struck out with red ink, and “7" placed after "aw.”

19

Towneley Plays II. The Killing of Abel.

here wiH I lig thise fourty dayes,

And I shrew hym that me fyrst raysc.

Devs. Caym, Caym ! [ God appears above.']

Caym. who is that* that* callis mo 1

I am yonder, may thou not4 se 1 343

Devs. Caym, where is thi brother’ abeHl Caym. what aski* thou me 1 I trow at heH :

At heH I trow he be —

who so were thei* then myght he sc — 347

Oi* somwhere fallen on slepyng ; when was he in my kepyng4 1

Deus. Caym, Caym, thou was wode;

The voyce of4 thi brother*# blode 351

That4 thou has slayn, on fals wise, from erth to heucn venyance cryse.

And, foi* thou has broght thi brother’ downe, here I gif* the my malison. 355

Caym). Yei, dele aboute the, for’ I wiH none, oi^ take it the when I am gone.

Syn I liaue done so mekiH syn,

that4 1 may not4 thi mercy wyn, 359

And thou thus dos me from thi grace,

I shaH liyde me fro thi face ;

And where so any man may fynd me,

Let hym slo me hardely ; 363

And where so any man may me meyte,

Aythei^ bi sty, or* yit4 hi strete ;

And hardely, when I am dede,

bery me in gudeboure at the quareH hede, 367

ffor’, may I pas this place in quarte, bi aH men set I not a fart.

Deus. Nay, caym, it4 bese not so ;

I wiH that4 no man othei^ slo,1 371

IFor* he that sloys yong or* old

It sliaH be punysliid sevenfold?. [Exit Deus.]

Caym\ No force, I wote wheder I shaH ;

In heH I wote mon be my staH. 375

It4 is no boyte mercy to craue,

ffoiJ if I do I mon none haue ; 377

1 Opposite this liue a later hand has added in the margin, that shaft do thy boddy der.”

God calls to Cain.

Where is thy brother?

Cain

answers he may be in hell or asleep.

God curses him.

Cain says since he lias lost God’s grace he will hide himself.

If any man find him, let him slay him : and bury him “in gude¬ boure at the quarell head.’’

God will not let him be slain.

Cain knows that hell will be his place.

20

tie wants to hide the body.

If Pike- hames were there they would bury it together.

Cain calla Pyke- harnes and hits him

to keep his hand in.

[Fol. 6, b.] He tells him he has slain Abel.

The boy cries out upon him.

We shall come off ill if the bailies catch us.

Cain pro¬ mises to cry his peace.

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel,

Bot4 this cors I wold were hid, 378

ffor som man myght4 com at vngayn,

‘ file fals shrew/ wold he bid,

And weyn I had my brother* slayn. 381

Bot4 were pike-harnes, my knafe, here, we shuld bery hym) both in fere.

How, pyke-harnes, scapo-thryft ! howr, pike-harnes, how ! Garcio. Master*, master* ! 385

Cayn\ harstow, boy 1 thei* is a podyng4 in the pot ; take the that, boy, tak the that !

Garcio. I shrew thi baH vnder thi hode,

If* thou were my syre of flesh & blode ; 389

AH the day to ryn and trott4,

And eu er amang thou strykeand,

Thus am I comen bofett/s to fott.

Cayn\ Peas, man, I did it bot to vse my hand ; 393

(24)

Bot Harke, boy, I haue a counseH to the to Say —

I slogh my brothei'* this same day ;

I pray the, good boy, and thou may, to ryn away with the bayn. 397

Garcio. We ! out apon the, thefo I has thou thi brothei'* slayn 1

Caym. Peasse, man, foi* god/s payn ! 400

(25)

I saide it* for* a skaunce.

Garcio . Yey, bot1 foi* ferde of grevance here I the forsake ;

we mon haue a mekiH myschaunce and the bayles vs take. 405

(26)

Caym\ A, sir, I cry you mercy ; seasse ! and I shaH make you a releasse.

Garcio. what*, wilt4 thou cry my peasse 408

(27)

thrughout4 this land 1

Cayn\ Yey, that4 1 gif4 god a vow, belife.

Garcio. how wiH thou do long or* thou thrife 1 Caym\ Stand vp, my good boy, belife, and thaym peasse both mau & [w]ife;

412

21

Towneley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel. (28)

And who so wiH do after* me ffuH slape of thrift1 then shal he be.

Bot1 thou must be my good boy, and cry oyes, oyes, oy !

Garcio. Browes, browes, to thi boy. 417

(29)

I co??nnaund! you in the kyng/s nayme,

And in my masteres, fals Cayme,

That1 no man at1 thame fynd fawt ne blame. Yey, cold rost is at my masteres hame. 421

(30)

Nowther* with liym nor* with his knafe,

What1, I hope ray master rafe. ffor* thay ar* trew, futt: many fold! ;

My master suppys no coyle hot cold?. 425 The kyng wrytw you vntiH,

Yit1 ete I neuer half my fiH. 427

(31)

CaymK The kyng wiH that thay be safe,

Garcio. Yey, a draght1 of1 drynke fayne wold I hayfe. CaymK At1 thare awne wiH let tham) wafe ;

Garcio. My stomak is redy to receyfe. 431

(32)

CaymK Loke no man say to theym, on nor* other* ; Garcio. This same is he that slo his brother*. 433 Cayrri}. Byd euery man thaym luf1 and lowt1,

Garcio. Yey, iH spon) weft1 ay comes foule out.

CaymK 1 long or* thou get1 thi hoyse and thou go thus aboute. 436

(33)

Byd euery man theym pleasse to pay.

Garcio. Yey, gif1 don), thyne hors, a wisp of1 hay. CaymK we ! com downe in twenty dwiH way,

The dwitt I the betake ; 440

ffor* bot1 it1 were abeH, my bro there,

yit knew I neuer thi make. 442

1 This line should probably be Garcio’s.

CaymK

Garcio.

CaymK

Garcio.

CaymK

Garcio.

CaymK

Garcio.

CaymK

Garcio.

He bids him cry Oya.

Cain makes proclama¬ tion of pardon for himself t his boy.

The boy mocks him in audible ‘asides.’

Cain curses the boy.

He has never known his equal since Abel.

[Fol. 7, a.

Sig. C, S.J

22 Tovmeley Plays. II. The Killing of Abel.

(34)

The boy Garcio. Now old and yong1, or* that1 ye weynd,

wishes the * *

spectators The same blissyng withoufcten end,

the blessing *' °

Gwi gave AH sam then shaH ye haue,

Cain.

That1 god of heuen my maste?’ has giffen) ;

Browke it1 weH, whils that ye liffen), he vowche it1 fuH weH safe.

Cain makes the boy go to the plough.

If he angers him he will hang him on it.

His own place must do in helL

(35)

Caym\ Com downe yit1 in the dwiHi# way, And angre me no more ;

And take yond plogh, I say,

And weynd the furth fast1 before ;

And I shaH, if* I may,

Tech the another* lore ;

I warn the lad, for* ay, ffro now furth, euennore,

That1 thou greue me noght ; floi*, hi God?s syd/s, if1 thou do,

I shaH hang the apon this plo, with this rope, lo, lad, lo !

By hym that1 me dere boght.

(36)

Now fayre weH, felows aH, ffor I must nedts weynd,

And to the dwiH be thraH, warld wtt/ioutten end.

Ordand ther* is my staH,

with sathanas the feynd,

Euer iH myght1 hym befaH that theder me commend,

This tyde.

ffare weH les, & fare weH more, ffor* now and eu er more,

T wiH go me to hyde.

443

445

448

452

457

461

465

470

Explicit Madacio Abe H. Seguitu Noe.

473

Toumeley Plays. III. Noah and the ArTc.

23

(in.)

Processus Noe cum filiis. Wakefeld.

[In 62 nine-line stanzas, aaaab ccb, with central rymes in aaaa

markt here by bars. ]

Noe.

Deus.

Vxor Noe.

Noe.

[Dramatis Personae.

Primus filius. Secundus filius. Tcrcius filius.

(i)

Prima Mulier. Sccunda Mulier. Tercia Mulier. ]

MyghtfuH god veray / Maker of aH that is,

Tkre persons withoutten nay / oone god in endles blis,

Thou maide both nyght & day / beest1, fowle, & fysh,

AH creatures that lif may / wroght thou at thi wish,

As thou wel myght ; 5

The son, the moyne, verament1,

Thou maide ; the firmament*,

The sternes also fuH feruent,

To shyne thou maide ful bright. 9

(2)

Angels thou maide ful euen / aH orders that is,

To haue the blis in heuen / this did thou more & les, ffutt mervelus to neuen / yitt was ther* vnkyndnes,

More bi foldis seuen / then I can weH expres ; ftoi* whi 1

Of1 att angels in brightnes God gaf* lucifer* most lightnes,

Yit prowdly he flyt his des,

And set1 hym euen) hym) by.

(3)

He thoght1 hymself as worthi / as hym that hym made,

In brightnes, in bewty / therfoi5 he hym degrade ; put hym in a low degre / soyn) after, in a brade, hym) and aH his menye / wher* he may be vnglad?

ffor euer. shaH thay neuer wyn away hence Ynto domysday,

Bot bume in bayle foi* ay,

shaH thay neuer dysseuer. 27

14

18

23

[Fol. T, b.J

Noah praises God for Hia work of creation.

He recalls the making of the angels

and the fall of Lucifer.

24

Noah recalls the creation of Adam <fc Eve

and their Fall.

[Fol. 8, a. Sig. C, 4.]

All living people now sin boldly.

8o that he dreads God's vengeance.

Tovmeley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

W

Soyne after that gracyous lord / to his liknes maide man), 28

That place to be restord / euen as he began),

Of* the trinite bi accord / Adam & eue that woman),

To multiplie without discord? / In paradise putt he thaym), And sithen to both 32

Gaf4 in commaundementt,

On the tre of* life to lay no hend ;

Bott yitt the fals feynd?

Made hym with man wroth, 36

(5)

Entysyd man to glotony / styrd him to syn in pride ;

Bot in paradise securly / myght no syn abide,

And therfoi* man full hastely / was put out, in that tyde, In wo & wandreth for* to be / In paynes fuH vnrid?

To knawe,1 41

ffyrstt in erth, in sythen in hell with feynd is for* to dwell,

Bott he his mercy meH

Tq those thatt will hym trawe. 45

(6)

Oyle of4 mercy he Hus hight / As I haue Hard red,

To euery lifyng wightt / that wold lutt hym and dred ; Bott now before his sight4 / euery liffyng leyde,

Most party day and nyght / syn in word and dede

ffuH bold ; 50

Som in pride, Ire, and enuy,

Som in Couetfyse] 2 & glotyny,

Som in sloth and lechery,

And other* wise many fold. 54

(7)

Therfor* I drede lest god / on vs will take veniance, ffor* syn is now alod / wit/jout any repentance ;

Sex hundreth yeris & od / haue I, without distance,

In erth, as any sod / liffyd with grete grevance

AH way ; 59

1 MS. knowe.

3 MS. Couetous.

25

Towneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

And now I wax old, seke, sory, and cold,

As muk apon mold

I widder away ; 63

(8)

Bot* yit* will I cry / for) mercy and call ;

Noe thi seruant*, am I / lord ouer all !

Therfor* me and my fry / slial with me faH ; saue from velany / and bryng to thi haH

In hcuen) ; 68

And kepe me from syn,

This warld within ;

Comly kyng* of* mankyn,

I pray the here my stevyn) ! [God appears above.]

(9)

Deus. Syn I haue maide aH thyng / that is liffand, Duke, emperoui'), and kyng / with myne awne hand, ffor to haue thare likyng / bi see & bi sand,

Euery man to my bydyng / shuld be bowand

ffuH feruent* ; 77

That* maide man sich a creatoure, ffarest* of* favoure,

Man must luf me paramoure,

by reson, and repent. 81

(10)

Me thoght I shewed man luf / when I made hym to be AH angels abuf / like to the trynyte ;

And now in grete reprufe / full low ligis he,

In erth hymself to stuf* / with syn that displeasse me

Most* of* aH ; 86

Veniance wiB I take,

In erth for syn sake,

My grame thus wiH I wake,

both of grete and small. 90

(ii)

I repente full sore / that euer maide I man),

Bi me he settw no store / and I am his soferan ;

I will distroy therfoiJ / Both beest, man, and woman,

All shall perish les and more / that bargan may thay ban,

Noah him¬ self is old.

He calls to God for mercy.

God solilo¬ quizes. He has made all men Si they should love Him Si repent.

But they lie sunk in sin, for which He will take vengeance.

He repents He ever made man.

[Pol. 8, b.]

95

26 Towneley Plays. Ill . Noah and the Ark.

The earth is fall of sin.

God will destroy it with floods.

A make end of every thing living, save Noah A his wife.

He will warn Noah quickly.

God bids Noah build a ship

S00 cubits long,

30 high,

30 broad.

That iH has done.

In erth I se right* noght*

Bot* syn that is vnsoght ;

Of* those that weH lias wroghfc

ffynd! I bot 1 a fone. 99

(12)

Therfoi* shall I fordo / AH this mediH-erd

•with floodis that shaH flo / & ryn with hidous rerd ;

I haue good cause therto / ffor* me no man is ferd,

As I say shal I do / of* veniance draw my swerd,

And make end? 104

of* all that beris life,

Sayf* noe and his wife, ffoiJ thay wold neuer stryfe

With me [ne] me offend. (ms. </*».] 108

(13)

liym to mekiH wyn / hastly wiH I go,

To noe my seruand, or* I blyn / to warn hywi of his wo.

In erth I se bot* syn / reynand to and fro,

Emang* both more & myn / ichon other fo ;

With aH thare entent ; 113

AH shaH I fordo with flood is that shall floo, wirk shaH I thaym wo,

That wiH not repent. [God descends comes to Noah.]

(14)

Noe, my f reend, I thee eommaund / from cares the to keyle, 118

A ship that thou ordand / of nayle and bord ful wele. Thou was alway wett wirkand / to me trew as stele,

To my bydyng obediand / frendship shal thou fele

To mede ; 122

of lennthe thi ship be Thre hundreth cube tt is, warn I the,

Of lieght euen thrirte,

of fyfty als in brede. 126

(15)

Anoynt* thi ship with pik and tar* / wft/iout* & als wit Ain, The water out to spar) / this is a noble gyn ;

1 MS. bot.

27

To'ivneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

look no man the mai> / thre chese 1 chambres begyn,

Thou must spend many a apai* / this wark oi* thou wyn To end fully. 131

Make in thi ship also, p«rloures oone or* two,

And houses of offyce mo,

beest/s that ther must be. 135

(16)

Gone cubite on hight / A wyndo shal thou make ; on the syd e a doore with slyght* / be-neyth shal thou take ; With the shal no man fyght* / noi) do the no kyn wrake. When all is doyne thus right / thi wife, that* is thi make, Take in to the ; 140

Thi sonnes of good fame,

Sem, Iaphet*, and Came,

Take in also hame,

Thare wifia also thre. 144

(17)

ffoiJ all shal be fordone / that lif* in land bot* ye, with floodis that from abone / shal fall, & that1 plente ;

It shall begyn full sone / to rayn vncessantle,

After dayes seuen be done / and induyiJ dayes fourty,

w/tAoutten fayH. 149

Take to thi ship also of ich kynd beestts tw’o,

MayH & femayll, hot no mo,

Or’ thou puH vp thi sayll. 153

(18)

ffor* thay may the avayH / when al this thyng is wroghtt ; Stuf* thi ship with vitayll, / ffor* hungre that ye perish noghtt ;

Of1 beestfs, fouH, and catayll / ffoi> thaym haue thou in thoght,

ffor thaym is my counsayH / that som socoui^ be soght,

In hast; 158

Thay must haue corn and hay,

And odei* mete alway ;

Do now as I the say,

In the name of* the holy gast.

1 MS. “ chefe." Compare line 281.

How the Ark is to bo fitted.

[Fol. 0, a.J

Noah is to take his wife, his three sons Si their wives,

to escape the rain that shall last 40 days.

He is to take in the ark two beasts of every kind,

and to victual it well.

162

28

Noah asks who it is who speaks.

God declares Himself.

Noah thanks Him for appearing to a simple knave like himself, & begs His blessing.

God blesses him.

Noah says he will go tell his wife.

IFol. 9, b.)

She wants to know what he has been doing.

Toumelcy Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

(19)

Noe. A ! benedicite ! / what art4 thou that thus 163 Tellys afore that4 shaH be ? / thou art full mervelus !

TeH me, for* charite / thi name so gracius.

Dens. My name is of dignyte / and also fuH glorius To knawe.1 167

I am god most myghty,

Oone god in trynyty,

Made the and ich man to be ;

To luf me weH thou awe. 171

(20)

Noe. I thank the, lord, so dere / that wold? vowch sayf4 Thus low to appere / to a symple knafe ;

Blis vs, lord, here / for charite I hit crafe,

The better may we stere / the ship that4 we shaH hafe, Certayn). 176

Deus. Noe, to the and to thi fry My blyssyng graunt I ;

Ye shaH wax and multiply,

And fiH the erth agane, 180

(21)

When aH thise floods ar* past4 / and fully gone away.

Noe. lord, homward wiH I hast4 / as fast as that I may ; My [wife] wiH I frast4 / what she wiH say, [Exit Deus.] And I am agast4 / that we get som fray

Betwixt vs both ; 185

ffor* she is fuH tethee, ffor) litiH oft4 angre,

If any thyng4 wrang be,

Soy ne is she wroth. Tunc perget ad vxorem). 189

(22)

God spede, dere wife / how fayre ye 1

Vxor\ Now, as euer myght I thryfe / the wars I thee see ;

Do teH me belife / where has thou thus long be 1 To dede may we dryfe / or1 lif4 for* the,

ffor* want4. 194

1 MS. knowe.

29

Tcnvneley Plays. III. Noah and the Arlc.

When we swete 01^ swynk, thou dos what thou thynk,

Yit of mete and of drynk

haue we veray skant. 198

(23)

Noe. Wife, we ar> hard sted / with tythyngw new. Vxod. Bot1 thou were worthi be cled / In Stafford blew ; ffor> thou art alway adred / be it fals or* trew ;

Bot god kuowes I am led / and that1 may I rew,

ffuH iH ; 203

ffor I dar* be thi borow,

(from euen vnto morow,

Thou spekw euer of1 sorow ;

God send the onys thi fill ! 207

(24)

We women may wary / aH iH husband^;

I haue oone, bi mary ! / that lowsyd me of my bandt’s ;

If he teyn I must tary / how so euer it stands,

With seymland full sory, / wryngand both my hand/s

fifoi* drede. 212

Bot1 yit other while,

What with gam & wit/i gyle,

I shall smyte and smyle,

And qwite hym his mede. 216

(25)

Noe. We ! hold? thi tong, ram-sky t / or I shall the still. Vxo7'\ By my thryft, if thou smyte / I shal turne the vntiH.

Noe. We shall assay as tyte / haue at the, giH !

Apon the bone shal it byte. /

Vxor\ A, so, mary ! thou emyU's iH !

Bot* I suppose 221

I shal nott in thi detf, fflyf of this flett !

Take the ther’ a langett

To tye vp thi hose ! 225

(26)

Noe. A ! wilt thou so 1 / mary, that1 is myne.

Vxor\ Thou shal thro for* two / I swere bi godiV pyne.

We sweat while you play.

Noah has bad news.

His wife says he should be *' clad in Stafford blew," for he is always afraid.

Women may curse all ill husbands, but she knows how to pay out hers.

Noah bids her hold her tongue.

She dares him. He strikes her.

She hits back,

& promises three blows for two.

30

Noah pro¬ mises to pay her back.

There is no wife like her on earth.

She says she will go spin.

Noah bids her pray for him.

[Fol. 10, a.] Noah begins work on the ark,

first invok¬ ing the Trinity.

11c gets the ark of the right

dimensions.

Townelcy Plays. Ill Noah and the Ark.

Noe. And I shaH qwyte the tho / In fayth or* syne. 228 Vxor\ Out* apon the, ho ! /

Noe. Thou can both byte and whyne,

with a rerd* ; 230

fl'or aH if1 she stryke, yifr fast* wiH she skryke,

In fayth I hold! none slyke

In aH mediH-erd? ; 234

(27)

Bofr I wiH kepe charyte / ffoi> I haue at do.

Vxorh Here shal no man tary the / I pray the go to ! ffuH weH may we mys the / as euer haue I ro ;

To spyn wiH I dres me. /

Noe. We ! fare weH, lo ;

Bot wife, 239

Pray for me besele,

To eft I com vnto the.

Vxor . Euen as thou prays for* me,

As euer myglit* I tlirife. [Exit Vxoi^.] 243

(28)

Noe. I tary fuH Lang / Fro my warke, I traw ;

Now my gerc wiH I fang / and thederward draw ;

I may fuH iH gang / the soth for to knaw,

Bot if god help amang / I may sit* downe daw

To ken) ; 248

Now assay wiH I how I can of wrightry,

In no?m?ie pafris, & filii,

Et sptnVws sarcefi, Amoh. 252

(29)

To begyn of this tree / my bonys wiH I bend,

I traw from the trynyte / socoure wiH be send! ;

It fayres fuH fayre, thynk me / this wark to my Now blissid be he / that this cau amend1.

lo, here the lenght,

Th re hundreth cubettok euenly, of* breed lo is it fyfty,

The lieght is euen thyrty Cubett/s fuH strenght.

hend ; 257

261

31

Tovmeley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

(30)

Now my gowne wiH I cast / and wyrk in my cote, 262 Make wiH I the mast / or* I flyt oone foote,

A 1 my bak, I traw, wiH brast ! / this is a sory note ! hit* is wonder that I last* / sich an old dote

Takes off his gown to work at the mast, but flwls it hard work for his old bones.

AH dold,

To begyn sich a wark ! My bonys ar* so stark,

No wonder if* thay wark,

ffor) I am fuH old.

266

270

(31)

The top and the sayH / both wiH I make,

The lielme and the casteH / also wiH I take,

To drife ich a nayH / wiH I not forsake,

This gere may neuer fayH / that dar’ I vndertake Onone.

He makes top & sail, helm & castle, & drives in the nails.

275

This is a nobuH gyn,

Thise nayles so thay ryn,

Tlioro more and myn,

Thise bord/s ichon ;

(32)

wyndow and doore / euen as he saide,

Thre ches cliambre / thay ar> weH maide,

Pyk & tar* fuH sure / ther apon laide,

This wiH euer endure / therof4 am I paide ;

ffor why 1 It4 is better wroght Then I coude haif4 thoght ; hym that4 maide aH of4 noght I thank oonly.

(33)

Now wiH I hy me / and no tliyng be leder,

My wife and my meneye / to bryng euen) heder. Tent hedir tydely / wife, and consider, hens must vs fle / AH sam togeder*

In hast.

279

He makes window & door, & three rooms.

284

288

Then comes to his wife & bids her flee.

293

Vxor\ Whi, syr’, what alis you 1 Who is that asalis youl To fle it avalis you,

And ye be agast4.

[Fol. 10, b. i She asks what ails him.

297

E

32

Townelcy Plays. III. Noah, and the Ark.

Noah tells his wife of the coming flood.

All are to be slain save themselves, their sons, and their son’s wives.

She is afraid at his tale.

Noah bids wife * sons help get together their goods. They all promise.

The gear must be got into the ark.

(34)

Noe. Ther is gain on the reyH / other’, my dame. 298 Vxor\ TeH me that ich a deyH / els get ye blame.

Noe. He that* cares may keiH / hlissid be his name ! he has for oure seyH / to sheld vs fro shame,

And saydf, 302

AH this warld aboute With floods so stoute,

That shaH ryn on a route,

ShaH be ouerlaide. 306

(35)

he saide aH shaH be slayn / hot oonely we,

Oure barnes that1 ar> bayn / and thare wife’s thre ;

A ship he bad me ordayn / to safe vs & oure fee,

Therfor* with aH oure mayn / thank we that fre

Beytter of1 bayH ; 311

hy vs fast, go we tliedir’.

Vxor\ I wote neue?’ whedii’,

I dase and I dedir

tfoiJ ferd of that tayH. 315

(36)

Noe. Be not aferdf, haue done / trus sam oure gere,

That we be ther’ or none / without more dere. primus films. It shaH be done fuH sone / brether’, help to here.

/Secunehis films. ffuH long shaH I not hoyne / to do my devere,

Brether sam. 320

Tevcius filius. without any yelp,

At my myght shaH I help.

Vxor\ Yit for* drede of1 a skelp help weH thi dam. 324

(37)

Noe. Now ar’ we there / as we shuld be;

Do get in oure gere / oure cataH and fe,

In to this vesseH here / my chylder fre.

Vxor\ I was neuer bard ere / As euer myght I the,

In sich an oostre as this. 329

33

Tovmeley Plays. III. Noah and the Arlc.

In fath I can not fynd

which is before, which is behynd ;

Bot shaH we here be pynd,

Noe, as haue thou blis 1 333

(38)

Noe. Dame, as it is skiB / here must vs abide grace ; Therfor, wife, wit// good wiB / com into this place.

Vxor\ Sir, for Iak nor for giB / wiB I tume my face Till T haue on this hiB / spoil a space

on my rok ; 338

WeB were he, myght get me,

Now wiB I downe set me,

Yit reede I no man let me,

ffoiJ drede of a knok. 342

(39)

Noe. Behold to the heuen / the cateractes aB,

That are open fuB euen / greto and smaB,

And the planettts seuen / left has thare staB,

Thise thoners and levyn / downe gar* faB

ffuB stout, 347

Both halles and bowers,

Castels and towres ; ffuB sharp ar* thise showers,

that renys aboute : 351

(40)

Theriot, wife, haue done / com into ship fast.

Vxoi'\ Yei, noe, go cloute thi shone / the better wiB thai last.

prima vnulierK Good moder, com iD sone / fFoi) aB is ouer cast,

Both the son and the mone. /

-SecuncZa mulierK and many wynd blast*

ffuB sharp ; 356

Thise floodw so thay ryn,

Theriot moder come in.

Vxor\ In fayth yit wiB I spyn ;

AB in vayn ye carp. 360

(41)

Tercia Mulier\ If* ye like ye may spyn / Moder, in the ship.

The wife complains of the ark.

She can’t tell fore from aft.

8he won’t go In till she has done some spinning.

Noah sees the heavens are threaten¬ ing,

[Fol. 11, a.]

and bids ner come in.

Her sons’ wives

entreat her.

She says she will spin on.

“ Why not 6pin in the ship?”

34

Towneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

8he will spin out her spindle on the hill where she is.

Noe. Now is this twyys com in / dame, on my frenship. Vxor\ Wheder I lose or) I wyn / In faytli, thi felow- ship,

set I not at a pyn / this spyndiH witt I slip

Apon this hiH, 365

Or1 I styiJ oone fote.

Noe. Peter ! I traw we dote ; without any more note

Come in if ye wiH. 3C9

Noali threatens her with the whip.

She defies him,

(42)

Vxor\ Yei, water nyghys so nere / that I sit not1 dry, Into ship wiih a byr* / therfor’ wiH I hy £for) drede that I drone here. /

Noe. dame, securly,

It bees boght fuH dere / ye abode so long by

out1 of* ship. 37 4

Vxor\ I will not1, for thi bydyng, go from doore to mydyng1.

Noe. In fayth, and for> youre long taryyng Ye slial lik on the whyp. 378

(43)

Vxor\ Spare me not, I pray the / hot euen as thou thynk,

Thise grete wordt’s shaH not Hay me. /

Noe. Abide, dame, and drynk

ffor* betyn shall thou be / with this staf to thou stynk ;

AiJ stroke good 1 say me. /

Vxoj’l what say ye, wat wynk 1

Noe. speke ! 383

Cry me mercy, I say !

Vxor\ Therto' say I nay.

Noe. Bot thou do, bi this day,

Thi hede shall I breke. 387

& wishes she were a widow. She wouldn’t grudge a penny dole for his soul then, & sees other wives who think the same.

(44)

Vxor\ Lord, I were at ese / and hertely fuH hoylle, Might1 1 onys haue a measse / of wedows coyH ; ffor thi sauH, wi't/zout lese / shuld I dele peraiy doyH, so wold mo, no frese / that I se on this sole of1 wifts that ai^ here,

393

35

Towneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

ffor the life that tliay leyd,

Wold thare husbandts were dede, ffor, as euer ete I hrede,

So wold I oure syre were. 396

(45)

Noe. Yee men that has wifi# / whyls they ar* yong,

If* ye luf youre lift# / chastice thare tong :

Me thynk my hert ryiis / both levy!’ and long,

To se sich stryfzs / wedmen emong ;

Bot I, * 401

As liaue I blys, shaH chastyse this.

Vxor\ Yit may ye mys,

N icholi nedy ! 405

(46)

Noe. I shaH make j>e still as stone / begynnar’ of blunder’ !

I shaH bcte the bak and bone / and breke aH in sondei\

[They fight.]

Vxor\ Out, alas, I am gone ! / oute apon the, mans wor.de?* !

Noe. Se how she can grone / and I lig vnder ;

Bot, wife, 410

In this hast let vs ho, ffor my bak is nere in two.

Vxor\ And I am bet so bio That I may not thryfe. [They enter the Ark.] 414

(47)

Pri?mis filius. A ! whi,fare ye thus 1 / ffade/* and moder both !

&ectmcfus filius. Ye shuld not be so spitus / standyng in sich a woth.

Tercius filius. Thise ar* so hidus / with many a cold coth. Noe we will do as ye bid vs / we will no more be wroth,

Dere bames ! 419

Now to the helme will I hent,

And to my ship tent.

Vxor\ I se on the firmament,

Me thynk, the seven stames.

Wives have such a bad life.

Noah bids

husbands

chastise

their wives’

tongues

early.

[Fol. 11, b.J He will set an example.

He threaten & beats her.

She cries out & beats him back.

Their sons

reproach

them.

Noah takes the helm.

423

36

Towneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

The flood rises.

Noah calls on God.

Noah bids his wife take the helm while he sounds.

The waters are 15 cubits above the hills, but now they will abate, after the 40 days’ rain.

He sounds again.

The wife sees the sun shining in the east.

(48)

Noe. This is a grete flood / wife, take hede. 424

VxorK So me thoght, as I stode / we ar* in grete drede ;

Thise wawghes ai* so wode. /

Noe. help, god, in this nede !

As thou art1 stere-man good / aud best, as I rede,

Of aH ; 428

Thou rewle V3 in this rase,

As thou me behete hase.

Vxor\ This is a perlous case : help, god, when we caH ! 432

(49)

Noe. Wife, tent the stere-tre / and I shaH asay The depnes of the see / that we here, if* I may.

VxorK That shaH I do ful wysely / now go tlii way, ffoi^ apon this flood liaue we / flett many day,

wtt/t pyne. 437

Noe. Now the water wiH I sownd :

A ! it is far to the grownd ;

This traueH I expownd

had T to tyne. 441

(50)

Aboue aH hillys bedeyn / the water is rysen late Cubeltt* fyfteyn} / bot in a highter state It may not be, I weyn / for this wett I wate,

This forty duyes has rayn beyn / It* wiH therfor) abate FuH lele. 446

This water in hast, eft wiH I tast ;

Now am I agast,

It is wanyd a grete dele. 450

(51)

Now are the weders cest / and cateractes knyt,

Both the most and the leest. /

VxorJ. M< tl»ynk, bi my wit,

The son shynes in the eest / k not yond it* 1 we shuld haue a good feest / -e thise floodw flyt So spytus.

455

37

Towneley Plays. III. Noah and the Ark.

Noe. we haue been here, aH we, tlire hundreth 1 dayes and fyfty.

Vxor\ Yei, now wanys the see ; lord, weft is vs ! 459

(52)

Noe. The thryd tyme wiH I prufe / what depnes we here.

Vxor). Now long shaft thou hufe / lay in thy lyne there. Noe. I may towch with my lufe / the grownd evyn here.

Vxcr\ Then begynnys to grufe / to vs mery chere ;

Bot, husband, 464

What grownd may this be 1 Noe. The hyllys of armonye.

VxorK Now blissid be he

That thus for vs can ordand ! 468

(53)

Noe. I see toppys of* hyllys he / many at a syght,

No thyng to let me / the wediiJ is so bright.

Vxor \ Thise ar of4 mercy / tokyns fuft right.

Noe. Dame, thi counsel! me / what fowH best myght, And Cowth, 473

with flight of wyng bryng, without taryying,

Of mercy som tokynyng

Aythei* hi north or southed 477

(54)

ffor this is the fyrst day / of the tent moyne.

Vxoi'K The ravyn, durst I lay / will com agane sone ; As fast as thou may / cast hym furth, haue done,

He may happyn to day / com agane oi* none

With grath. 482

Noe. I wiH cast out also Dowiys oone oi* two :

Go youre way, go,

God send! you som wathe ! 486

(55)

Now ar* thise fowles flone / Into sey^ couutre ;

Pray we fast ichon / kneland on our kne,

1 MS. ccc,

They liAve now been 350 days in the ark.

[Fol. 12, a.J

Noah takes soundings a third time, & touches ground.

They are on the hills of Armenia.

Noah asks his wife what bird will fly away & soonest bring back a token of mercy.

She suggests the raven.

He lets loose a dove or two also.

38

Noali and his family pray to God that the birds may return with good news.

He wonders why they tarry so long.

He hopes most from the dove.

The wife sees her coming with an olive-branch in her bill.

[Fol. 12, b.J

Noah blesses the dove.

Her return is a true token they sliall be saved.

Townelcy Plays. III. Noah and the Ark .

To hym that1 is alone / worthiest of* degre,

That he wold send anone / oure fowles som fee To glad vs.

Vxor\ Thai may not fayH of land,

The water is so wanand.

Noe. Thank we god alt weldand,

That* lord that made vs.

(56)

It1 is a wonde?’ thyng / me thynk sothle,

Thai ar* so long taryyng / the fowles that we Cast* out in the mornyng. /

Vxor\ Syr), it* may be

Thai tary to thay bryng. /

Noe. The ravyn is a hungrye

AH way ;

He is without any reson,

And he fynd any caryon,

As pe?-aventure may befon, he wilt not away ;

(57)

The dowfe is more gentili / her) trust I vntew, like vnto the turtiH / for* she is ay trew.

VxorK hence bot a litiH / she co??nnys, lew, lew ! she bryngys in her biH / som novels new ;

Behaldf !

If is of* an olif* tre A branch, thynkys me.

Noe. If is soth, perde, righf so is if cald*.

(58)

Doufe, byrdl full blist / ffayre myghf the befaH ! •Thou art trew foi) to trist / as ston in the wait ; Full welt I it wist / thou wold com to thi halt, Vxor]. A trew tokyn isf / we shaft be sauyd aH ffor* whi 1

The water, syn she com .

Of* depnes plom,

Is fallen a fathom,

And more hardely.

39

Towntley Plays. III. Noah and the, Ark.

(59)

Primus JiHus. Thise floodts ai* gone / fader, behold*.

*SecuiKfws /ilius. Ther) is left right1 none / and that be ye bold*.

Tercius /ilius. As stiH as a stone / oure ship is stold.

Noe. Apon land here anone / that we were, fayn I wold ;

My childer dere, 527

Sem, Japhet and Cam, with gle and with gam,

Com go we aH sam,

we wiH no longer abide here. 531

(60)

Vxor\ here haue we beyn / noy long enogh, with tray and with teyn / and dreed mekiH wogh.

Noe. behald* on this greyn / nowder cart1 ne plogh Is left1, as 1 weyn / nowde?’ tre then bogh,

Ne other thyng1, 536

Bot aH is away ;

Many casteis, I say,

Grete townes of1 aray,

fflitt has this flowyng1. 540

(«»)

Vxor \ Thise flood /s not* afright / aH this warld* so wide has mevid with myglit / on se and bi side.

Noe. To dede ar* thai dyght1 / prowdist of1 pryde,

Euer ich a wyght / that euer was spyde,

With syn), 545

AH ai^ thai slayn,

And put vnto payn.

Vxor\ ffrom thens agayn

May thai neuer wyn 1 549

(62)

Noe. wyn ? no, I-wis j bot1 he that myght hase Wold myn of1 thare mys / & admytte thaym to grace ;

As he in bayH is blis / I pray hym in this space,

In heven hye with his / to purvaye vs a place,

That we, 554

Noah’s sons exclaim that the floods are gone & the ark rests quietly.

Noah bids them come all together out of the ark.

There is neither cart nor plough, tree nor bough, to be seen on the land. Castles & towns are all swept away.

The proudest of pride are slain and in torment,

never to escape thence, save God admit them to grace.

40

Mfiy God bring Nonh & his family to heaven with His saints 1

[Fol. 13, a. Sig. D. 1.]

Abraham prays to God for mercy.

He muses on the fate of his fore¬ fathers, since first Adam ate the apple in Paradise.

Adam lived long in sorrow.

Townelty Plays. IV. Abraham .

with his sant/s in sight,

And his angels bright1,

May com to his light :

Amen, for charite. 558

Explicit processus Noe , sequitur Abraham.

(IV.)

Sequitur Abraham.

[Incomplete. 35| eight-line stanzas , ab ab ab ab.] [Dramatis Personae.

Abraham. I Dais. I Sccundus Pu&r. J

Primus Puer. | Isaac. |

Abraham. (i)

Adonay, thou god veray,

Thou here vs when we to the caH,

As thou art he that best* may,

Thou art most socoure and help of aH ; MightfuH lord ! to the I pray,

Let1 onys the oyle of1 mercy faH,

ShaH I neuer abide that day,

Truly yit I hope I shall.

(2)

Mercy, lord omnipotent !

long syn he this warld has wroght ; Wheder ar* aH oure elders went 1 This rnusys mekiH in my thoght. ffrom adam, vnto eue assent*,

Ete of* that* appyH sparid he noght, ffor aH the wisdom that he ment* ffuH dere that* bargan has he boght*,

(3)

tfrom) paradise thai bad hym gang* ;

He went* mowrnyng with symple chere, And after liffyd he here fuH lang,

More then thre hundreth 1 yere,

4

8

12

16

1 MS. ccc.

20

41

Towneley Plays. IV. AbraJuun.

In sorow and in traueH strang,

And euery day he was in were ; his childre angred? hym amang ;

Cay in slo abeH, was liym fuH dere.

w

Sithen Noe, that was trew and good, his 1 and his chyldre tlire, was saued when aH was Hood :

Cain slew Adam’s dear son Abel.

24

Noah was saved from the Flood

That1 was a wonder thyng to so. 28

And loth fro sodome when he yode,2 Thre cytees brent, yit eschapyd! he ;

Thus, for thai menged my lordts mode,

he vengid syn thrugh his paustA 32

(5)

when I thynk of oure elders aH,

And of the mervels that has been),

No gladnes in my hart may faH,

M[y] comfort goys away full cleyn. 36

lord, when shaH dede make me his thraH ?

An hundreth 3 yeris, certis, haue I seyn) ;

Ma fa ! gone I hope he shaH,

ffoi* it were right hie tyme I weyn). 40

(6)

Yit* adam is to hell gone,

And ther) has ligen many a day,

And4 aH oure elders, eue?-ychon,

Thay ar gone the same way, 44

Y nto god wiH here thare mone ;

Now help, lord, adonay ! flbr>, certts, I can no better wone,

And thei^ is none that better may. 48

(7) [ God appears above.']

Dem. I wiH help adam and his kynde,

Might 1 luf* and lewte fynd ;

Wold thay to me be trew, and blyn

Of* thare pride and of* thare syn : 52

My seruand I wiH found & frast,

Abraham, if* he be trast ;

and Lot from Sodoiu

Abraham himself is sad at heart.

[Fol. 13, b.)

He is an hundred years old. When will death take him ?

His fore¬ fathers lie in hell till God release them.

He can do no better.

God desires to help Adain and his kind.

He will prove Abraham’s faith.

1 Query “he." » MS. c.

2 MS. yede.

4 MS. And and.

42

God calls to Abraham.

He has heard his prayers, A now bids him take his son Isaac to 4 the land of Visyon* Si there sacri¬ fice him

Abraham

cheerfully

promises

obedience.

He must obey God whatever it costs him, oven if he be bidden to slay wife and child.

Towncley Plays. IV. Abraham.

On certan wise I wiH hym proue,

If* he to me be trew of* louf*. 56

(8)

Abraham ! Abraham 1 57

Abraham. Who is that? war* ! let me se !

I herd oone neven my name.

Deus. It* is I, take tent to me, 60

That fourmed thi fade?* adam,

And eue?*y thyng in it* degre.

Abi'aliam. To here thi will, redy I am,

And to fulfill, what euer it* be. 64

(9)

Deus. Of* me?*cy haue I herd thi cry,

Thi devoute prayers haue me bun) ;

If* thou me luf*, look )>at thou hy

Ynto the land of* Visyon ; 68

And the thryd day be ther’, bid I,

And take with the, Isaac, thi son,

As a beest to sacryfy,

To slo hym look thou not shon, 72

(10)

And bren hym theiJ to thyn offerand.

Abraham. A, lovyd be thou, lord in throne I hold oue?* me, lord, thy holy hand,

ffor' cerUs thi bidyng shall be done. 76

Blissyd be that lord in eue?*y land wold viset his seruand thus so soyn). ffayn wold I this thyng ordand,

ffor it profettis noght* to lioyne ; [Exit Deus.] 80

(ii)

This co??nnaundement* must* I nedfs fulfill,

If* that my hert wax hevy as leyde ;

Shuld I offend my iordfs wiH 1

Nay, yit were I leyfFer) my cliild were dede. 84

What* so he biddfs me, good or* ill,

That* shaH be done in eue?*y steede ;

Both wife and child?, if* he bid spiH ;

I wille not do agans his rede.

88

43

Toumdey Plays. IV. Abraham ,

(12)

wist Isaac, whei^ so he were, he wold be abast now, how that he is in dangere.

Isaac, son, wher art1 thou? 92

Isaac. AH redy, fader, Lo me here ;

Now was I commyng vnto you ;

I luf* you mekiH, fader dere.

Abraham. And dos thou so? I wold wit how 96

(13)

luf/61 thou me, son, as thou has saide.

Isaac. Yei, fader>, with aH myn hart,

More then aH that1 euer was raaide ;

God hold me long youre life in quart ! 100

Abraham. Now, who would not be glad that had A child so lufand as thou art1?

Thi lu fly chere makis my hert glad,

And many a tyme so has it gart. 104

(14)

Go home, son ; com sone agane,

And teH thi moder I com ful fast ;

\lric transsiet

So now god the saif and sayne !

Now weH is me that he is past !

Alone, right here in this playn,

Might I speke to myn hart brast,

I wold that1 aH were weH ful fayn,

Bot1 it1 must1 nedts be done at last1 ;

(15)

And it1 is good that I be war*,

To be avised fuH good it were.1 The land of1 vision is ful far>,

The thrid day end must I be there 116

Myn ase shaH with vs, if1 it thaiJ,

To bere oure hames les A' more, ffor) my son may be slayn no nar> ;

A swerd must1 with vs yit therfore, 120

/saac a patre, 108

112

Abraham calls Isaac.

[Fol. 14, a. Sig. D. 2.]

Isaac comes to him. 4 1 love you much, dear father.'

Abraham rejoices in his son’s love,

and bids him tell his mother he is coming quickly.

Now he is alone he could speak till his heart break.

But he must prepare for liis three days’ journey.

1 The rhyme needs ‘wore, thore.’

44

Abraham will start this night, for Goa's will must be done.

He calls Isaac, & tells him to pre¬ pare for a Journey to sacrifice in a far country. He is to take wood & fire.

Isaac shall ride Si he will walk.

Isaac is ready at his word.

[They come near the hill of sacrifice.] Abraham tells the servants to stay behind.

Towneley Plays. IV. Abraham.

(16)

And I sliaH found! to make me yare; 121

This nyght wiH I begyn my way,

J)of* Isaac be neuer so fayre,

And myn awn son, the soth to say, 124

And! thof* he be myn right haire,

And all shuld! weld! after my day,

Godts bydyng* shaH I not spare ;

shuld I that ganstand! 1 we, nay, ma fay ! 1 28

(17)

Isaac !

Isaac. — sir !

Abraham. — luke thou be bowne ; ffor> certan, son, thi self* and I, we two must* now weynd! furth of1 towne,

In far* country to sacrifie, 132

ffor certan skyllys and encheson.

Take wod and fyere with the, in hy ;

Bi hillys and! dayllys, both vp & downe,

son, thou shal ride and! I wiH go bi. 136

(18)

looke thou mys noght )>«t thou shuld nede ;

Do make the redy, my darlyng !

Isaac. I am redy to do this dede,

And euer to fulfill youre bydyng. 140

Abraham. My dere son, look thou haue no drede,

We shal com home with grete lovyng;

Both to & fro I shal vs lede ;

Com now, son, in my blyssyng. 144

(19)

Ye two here with this asse abide, [To the Servants.

fTor* Isaac & I wiH to yond hiH ;

IV is so hie we may not* ride,

therfor* ye two shal abide here stiH. 1 48

primus puerK sir, ye ow not to be denyed! :

we ar redy youre bydyng to fulfiH. eecundus puei'). What* so euer to vs betide To do youre bidyng ay we wiH.

152

45

Tovmeley Plays. IV. Abmham.

(20)

Abraham. Godts blyssyng1 haue ye both in fere ; I shaH not tary long you fro.

primus pucr\ SiiJ, we shal abide you here,

Oute of this stede shaH we not1 go.

Abraham. Childre, ye ai^ ay to me fuH dere,

I pray god kepe [you] euer fro wo.

&ecune?us puer\ we wiH do, sir, as ye vs lere. Abraham. Isaac, now ar’ we bot1 we two,

(21)

we must go a fuR good paase, ffor it1 is fartlier than I wend! ; we shaH make myrth & grete solace,

Bi this tbyng be broght to end. lo, my son, here is the place.

Isaac, wod and fyere ar) in my hend ;

TeH me now, if1 ye haue space,

where is the becst1 that1 shuld be brendl

(22)

Abraham. Now, son, I may no long??* layn, sich wiH is into myne hart went ;

Thou was euer to me fuH bayn Euer to fulfiR myn entent1.

Bot1 certanly thou must1 be slayn,

And it1 may be as I haue ment.

Isaac. I am hevy and nothyng fayn,

Thus hastely that shaH be slient.

(23)

Abraham. Isaac!

Isaac. sir ?

Abraham Com heder, bid I ;

Thou shal be dede what so euer betide.

Isaac. A, fade?*, mercy ! mercy !

Abraham. That1 1 say may not1 be denyde ;

Take thi dede therfor> mekely.

Isaac. A, good sir, abide ; ffader /

Abraham. What son 1

Isaac. to do youre wiH lam redy,

where so euer ye go oiJ ride,

Abraham blesses them. He will soon be back.

[Fol. 14, b.]

156

160

He and Isaac come to the place.

164

168

Isaac asks where is the beast they are to burn.

Abraham tells him he is to be slain.

172

176

Isaac is heavy at heart and unwilling.

Abraham bids him take his death

meekly & he submits.

180

184

46

Towneley Ploys. IV. Abraham.

Isaac says since lie has trespassed he would be beaten.

But what has lie done ?

"Truly, no ill,” Abra¬ ham an¬ swers, yet that may not help him.

His ques¬ tions wring Abraham’s heart, but he bids him lie still.

[Fol. 15, a. Sig. D. 3.]

Isaac quakes at the sight of the sword. He is placed on his face that lie may not see it.

(24)

If* I may oght1 ouertake youre wiH, 185

syn I haue trepa[s]t* I wold be bet.

Abraham. Isaac!

Isaac. What, sir 1

Abraham. good son, be stiH.

Isaac, ffader !

A braham. what, son !

Isaac. think on thi get ! 188

what haue I done ?

Abraham. truly, none ill.

Isaac. And shaH be slayn 1 Abraham. so haue I het.

Isaac, sir, what may help 1

Abraham. certts, no skill.

Isaac. I ask mercy.

Abraham. that may not let. 192

(25)

Isaac, when I am dede, and closed* in clay,

who shaH then be youre son 1

Abraham. A, lord, that I shuld abide this day !

Isaac, sir, who shaH do that I was won 1 196

Abraham, speke no sich wordw, son, 1 the pray.

Isaac. shaH ye me slo 1 Abraham. I trow I mon);

lyg stiH ! I smyte !

Isaac. sir, let1 me say.

Abraham. Now, my dere child*, thou may not shon). 200

(26)

Isaac. The shynyng of youre bright1 blayde

It1 gars me quake for ferde to dee.

Abraham. Therfor> grotiyngi's thou shaH be layde,

Then when I stryke thou shal not se. 204

*

Isaac. .What1 haue I done, fader, what haue I sable? Abraam. Truly, no kyns iH to me.

Isaac. And thus gyltles shaH be arayde.

Abraham. Now, good son, let sich wordw be. 208

(27)

Isaac. I luf1 you ay.

Abraham. so do I the.

Towneley Plays. IV. A braham.

47

Is&ac. ffader !

Abraham. what1, son 1 Isaac. let now be seyn).

ffoiJ my mode/* luf.

Abraham . let be, let be !

It4 AviR not help that thou wold? meyn ; 212

Bot1 ly styR. tiH I com to the,

I mys a lytyH thyng, I Aveyn. he spekts so rufully to me

That* water shoU's in both myn eeyn,

(28)

I were leuer than aH wardly wyn,

That I had fon hym onys vnkynde,

Bof no defawt1 1 faund? hym in :

I wold be dede for* hym, ox* pynde ;

To slo hym thus, I thynk grete syn,

So rufuR Avord is I with hym fynd ;

I am fuH avo that Ave shuld? tAvyn, ffor he AviR neuer oute of1 my mynd.

(29)

What shal I to his mode/* say ?

ffor “ where is he,” tyte AviR she spyr ;

If1 1 teR hir*, “ ron away/’

hir) answere bese belife — “ nay, sii** ! ” 228

. And I am ferd? hir> for to slay ;

I ne wote what I shal say tiH hir). he lyys fuR stiR thei* as he lay,

ffor to I com, dar* he not1 styr, 232

(30) [ God appears above. ] Deus. AngeR, hy Avith aR tlii mayn !

To abrahrtm thou shaH be sent ; say, Isaac1 shaR not* be slayn ;

he shaR lif1, and not1 be brent. 236

My bydyng stands he not agane,

Go, put1 hym out of1 his intent1 ;

By (I hym go home agane,

I know AveR how he ment. 240

216

220

224

Isaac im¬ plores Abra¬ ham by his mother's love.

Abraham turns aside, blinded by tears.

If only he had found Isaac once unkind !

What shall he say to his mother? She will not believe Isaa** has run away.

God bids an angel tell Abraham to spare his son.

F

48

(Fol 15, b.]

Tlio Angel rejoices ift his errand.

Abraham says to him¬ self he must run up sud¬ denly & slay Isaac where he lies.

The Angel bids him hold his hand.

Abraham doubts which is God’s final order.

The Angel assures him, A he thanks God for His goodness.

Towneley Plays. IV. Abraham.

(31)

Angelus. Gladly, Lord, I am redy : thi bidyng shaH be magnyfyed ;

I shaH me spede ful hastely,

the to obeye at euery tyde ; 244

Thi wiH, Thi name, to glorifye,

Oner aH this warld so wide ;

And to thi seruand now in hy,

good, trew, abraham, wiH I glyde. 248

(32)

Abraham. Bot myght I yit of wepyng sese, tiH I had done this sacrifice ;

It must1 nedts be, withoutten lesse,

thof aH I carpe on this kyn wise, 252

The more my sorow it1 wiH incres ;

when I look to hym, I gryse ;

I wiH ryn on a res,

And slo hym here, right as he lyse. 256

(33)

Angelus. Abraham ! Abraham ! [Seizes him.]

Abraham. Who is ther) now 3

War* ! let the 1 go.

Angelus. stand vp, now, stand ;

Thi good wiH com I to alow,

Therfor I byd the hold thi hand. 260

Abraham, say, who bad sol any bof thou 3 Angelus. Yei, god ; & sendts this beest to thyn offerandf. Abraham. I speke with god latter, I trow,

And doyng he me commaund. 264

(34)

Angelus. He has pe?*sauyd thy mekenes And thi good wiH also, Iwis ; he wiH thou do thi son no distres,

ffor* he has graunt to the his blys. 268

Alnaham. Bot wote thou weH that it is As thou has sayd 3 Angelus. I say the yis.

Abraham. I thank the, lord*, weH of goodnes,

That* aH thus has relestt me this ;

1 Query “me.”

272

Towneley Plays . V. Isaac.

(35)

To speke wtt/t the haue I no space, with my dere son tiH I haue spokyn.

My good son, thou shal haue grace,

On the now wiH I not1 be wrokyn ;

Ryse vp now, with thi frely face.

Isaac, sir’, shall I lif 1

Abralmn. yei, this to tokyn.

JEt] osculatar earn.

son thou has skapid a fuH hard? grace,

Thou shuld! haue beyn both brent & brokyn.

(36)

Isaac. Bot, fade?*, shaH I not1 be slayn 1 Abraham. No, certo'e, son.

Isaac. then am I glad! ;

Good sir , put1 vp youre sword agayn.

Abraham. Nay liardely, son, be thou not adradf.

Isaac. Is aH: for geyn 1

Abraham. yei, son, certan.

Isaac. ffor) fere), sir, was I nere-hand? mac).

49

276

Abraham tells Isaac he is not to be killed. Bids him arise,

and kisses him.

2.80

284

Isaac bids him put up his sword again.

He was almost mad ■600 for fear.

******

[Two leaves of the MS. are wanting hero, sigs. d 4 and d 5. They contained the end of Abraham and the beginning, almost all, of Isaac. \

(v.)

[Isaac.]

[Incomplete. The last 35 couplets only left.] [Dramatis Personae.

Isaac. Jacob. Esaw, Rebecca. ]

******

[ Isaac .] Com nere son and kys me, that1 I may feyle the smell of1 the.

The smell of1 my son is lyke

to a feld with flouris, or* hony bike.

where art1 thou, Esaw, my son 1

Iacob. here, fade?’, and askw youre benyson.

[Fol. 1«, a.]

Isaac bids Esau come near that he may smell him.

Jacob comes instead and asks his blessing.

50

Toumeley Plays. V. Isaac.

Isaac blesses Jacob in mistake for Esau.

Esau brings Isaac the venison he has prepared and asks his blessing.

Isaac sees how he has been

beguiled by Jacob.

He gives Esau the best blessing he can.

Esau vows to slay Jacob if he meet him.

Isaac\ Tho blyssyng my fader gaf* to me, god of* lieuen & I gif' the ; 8

God gif1 the plente grete, of1 wyne, of1 oyH, and of* whete ;

And graunt* thi childre aft

to worship the, both grete and small ; 12

who so the blyssys, blyssed be he ; who so the waris, wared be he.

Now has thou my grete blyssyng,

loue the shall all thy ne ofspryng* ; 16

Go now wheder thou has to go.

Jacob. Graunt mercy, sir, I will do so.

recedet iacob. [ Esaio advances .]

Esaw. haue, ete, fade?*, of1 myn) huntyng*,

And gif1 me sythen your blyssyng. 20

Isaac\ Who is that 1 Esaw. I, youre son

Esaw, brynges you venyson.

Isaac\ Who was that1 was right* now here,

And broght* me bruet of* a dere 1 24

T ete weH, and blyssyd hym ;

And he is blyssyd, ich a lym).

Esaio. Alas ! I may grete and sob.

Isaac). Thou art begylyd thrugh iacob, 28

That1 is thyne awne german) brother’.

Esaw. haue ye kepyd me none other Blyssyng then ye set* hym one ?

Isaac, sich another* haue I none ; 32

Bot* god gif* the to thyn handband! the dew of* heuen & frute of* land ;

Other* then this can I not* say.

Esaw. Now, alas, and walo-way ! 36

May I with that* tratoure mete, my faders dayes shaH com with grete,

And my moders also ;

may I hym mete, I shall hym slo. 40

[Esaw retires. Rebecca advances .]

Rebecca. Isaac*, it* were my doth If* Iacob weddeth in kynd of* lieth ;

51

Towneley Plays. V. Isaac.

I wiH send hym to aran,

there my brothere dwellys, laban ;

And there may he seme in peasse tiH his brother’s wrath will seasse. why shuld? I apon a day loyse both my sonnes 1 better nay.

Isaac\ Thou says soth, wife ; caH hym heder, And let vs tett hym where & wheder That he may fle esaw, that* vs both hetts bale to brew.

[Iacob advances.]

Rebecca. Iacob, son ! thi fader & I wold* speke with the ; com, standi vs by I Out1 of* contry must1 thou fle, that1 Esaw slo not the.

Iacob. "Wliederward! sliuldf I go, dame ?

Rebecca. To mesopotameam ;

To my brothere, and thyn erne, that dwellys besyde Iordan streme ;

And tlier) may thou with hym won, to Esaw, myne other) son), fforget, and aH his wrath be dede.

Iacob. I will go, fader, at youre rede.

Isaac. Yei, son, do as thi moder says ;

Com kys vs both, & weynd thi ways.

et osculatur.

Iacob. Haue good day, s ir and dame !

Isaac. God sheldf the, son, from syn and shame 1

Rebecca. And gif1 the grace, good man to be, And send me glad ty thyn gw to the.

Rebecca and . . Isaac resolve 44 to send

Jacob to his uncle Laban till Esau’s wrath cease.

48

52

Rebecca tells Jacob he must flee from Esau.

56

[FoL 16, b.}

60

64

He kisses his father & mother, & goes his way with their blessing.

68

Explicit Isaac.

52

Towneley Plays. VI. Jacob.

Jacob. Dms. Rachc\ 1.

(VI.)

Sequitwr iacob.

[71 couplets aa.] [Dramatis Personae..

Lya. [Leah. ] Turmae.

Joseph. Benjamin. Esaw .]

Jacob prays Qod to be his guide on his way.

He lies down to sleep with a stone for a pillow.

God appears to him and blesses him.

Iacob.

Help me lord, adonay,

And hald me in the light1 way To mesopotameam ;

ffoiJ I cam neuer oiJ now where I am; 4

I cammeuer here in this contre ; lord! of' heuen, thou help me ! ffor) I haue maide me, in this strete, sore bonys & warkand feete. 8

The son is downe, what is best1! heiJ purpose I alt nyght to rest1 ;

Yndei,) my hede this ston) slial ly ;

A nyghtzs rest1 take wiH I. 12

Dens. Iacob, iacob, thi god I am , [pens appears above.] Of1 thi forfader abraham,

And of1 thi fader Isaac ;

I shall the blys for* thare sake. 16

This land? that1 thou slepys in,

I shaH the gif1, and thi kyn ;

I shaH thi seede multyply,

As thyk as powder on erth may ly. 20

The kynd of1 the shaH sprede wide, ffrom eest1 to west1 on euery syde, ffrom the south vnto the north ;

AH that1 1 say, I shaH forth ; 24

And aH the folkts of1 tliyne ofspryng, slial be blyssyd of1 thy blyssyng1.

Iacob, haue thou no kyns drede 1

I shaH the clethe, I shaH the fede. 28

WhartfuH shaH I make thi gate ;

I shal the help erly and! late ;

53

Toumcley Plays. VI. Jacob.

And aR in qwart4 shaR I bryng the

home agane to tlii countre. 32

I shaR not1 fayR, be thou bold,

Bot I shaR do as I haue told.

hie vigilet.

Iacob. A ! lord ! what4 may this meno ? what4 haue I herd in slepe, and sene'! 36

That god leynyd hym to a stegh,

And spake to me, it1 is no leghe ;

And now is here none othere gate,

bot4 godts bowse and heuens yate. 40

lord, how dredfuR is this stede ! ther) I layde downe my hede,

In god is lovyng4 1 rayse this stone,

And oyR wiR I putt4 theron). 44

lord of4 heuen, that aR wote, here to the I make a hote :

If4 thou gif4 me mete and foode,

And close to body, as I behoued, 48

And bryng me home to kyth and kyn, by the way that I walk in, without4 skathe and in quarte,

I promyse to the, with stedfast4 hart4, 52

As thou art4 lord? and god myne,

And I Iacob, thi trew hyne,

This stone I rayse in sygne to day

shaR I hold! holy kyrk for* ay ; 56

And of4 aR that4 newes me rightwys tend shaR I gif4 the.

hie egrediatm iacob de aran in terram natiuitatis sue.

A, my fader, god of4 heuen,

that4 saide to me, thrugh thi steven, 60

when I in aran was dwelland, that4 1 sliuld tume agane to land TheiJ I was both fed and borne,

warnyd thou me, lord, beforne, 64

As I went4 toward aran

with my staff, and passyd Iordan :

God pro¬ mises him a peaceful return home.

Jacob awakes, <b sets up a stone in praise of God, pouring oil thereon.

The stone is his witness, that if God

Erovides for im Si brings him home in peace he wil* hold to his holy Church for ever.

[Fol. 17, a.)

On his return from Aran, Jacob remembers God’s pro¬ mise.

54

Jacob is re¬ turning with two hosts of men.

He prays God to pro¬ tect him from Esau.

He has sent Esau many beasts as a present, & hopes it may pacify him.

He wrestles with God, and will not let Him go.

God changes his name to Israel.

Jacobs asks God’s name, and is told “ Wonder¬ ful.”

Towneley Plays. VI. Jacob.

And now I com agane to kyth,

with two ostes of men me with. 68

Thou hete me, lord, to do weH with me, to multyplye my seede as sand of* see ;

Thou saue me, lord*, thrugh vertew,

ffrom veniance of* Esaw, 72

That* he slo not*, for’ old! greme, these models with thare barne teme.

Rache H. Oure anguysh, sir1, is many fold, syn that* oure messyngere vs told 76

That Esaw wold you slo, with foure hundreth men and mo.

Iacob. ffor> soth, racheH, I haue hym sent of* many beestts sere present*. 80

May tyde he will oure giftis take,

And right* so shaH his wrath slake, where av> oure thyngts, ar) thay past Iordan 1

Lya. Go and look, sir’, as ye can. 84

hie scrutetai supevlectile, & lucietm angel as cum eo.

Deus. The day spryngfs ; now lett* me go.

Iacob. Nay, nay, I wifi not so,

Bot* thou blys me or’ thou gang :

If* I may, I shaH hold the lang.

Deus. In tokynyng that* thou spekzs with me,

I shaH toche now thi thee,

That halt shaH thou euermore, bot* thou shaH fele no sore ;

What* is thy name, thou me teH 1 Iacob. Iacob.

Deus. nay, bot* IsraeH ;

syn thou to me sich strengthe may kythe, to men of* erth thou must be stythe.

Iacob. what is thy name 1 Deus. whi ask is thou it ?

‘ wonderfuH/ if* thou wil wyt.

Iacob. A, blys me, lord !

Deus. I shaH the blys,

And be to the fuH p?-opyce,

88

92

96

100

VI. Jacob .

55

Tovmeley Plays.

And gyf1 the my blyssyng foi' ay,

As lord and he that1 aH may.

I shaH grayth thi gate,

And fuH weH ordeyn thi state ; 104

when thou has drede, thynk on me,

And thou shal fuH weH saynyd be,

And look thou trow weH my sayes ;

And fare weH now, the day dayes. 108

Iacob. Now haue I a new name, israeH ; this place shaH [hight] fanueH, fTor* I haue seyn in this place,

god of1 heuen) face to face. 112

Racks H. Iacob, lo we haue tythand that1 Esaw is here at1 hand.

hie diuidit t nr mas in tres partes.

Iacob. KacheH, stand thou in the last1 eschele, ffor) I wold thou were sauyd wele ; 116

Call Ioseph and beniamin,

And let* tlieym not1 fro the twyn.

If1 it1 be so that1 Esaw

vs before aH-to-hew, 120

Ye that1 ar* here the last1 Ye may be sauyd if1 ye fle fast.

& vadat iacob osculandy Esaw ; venit iacob , Jiectit genua exorando deum, & leuando , occurrit illi Esaw in amplexibus.

Iacob. I pray the, lord, as thou me het1,

1 thou saue me and! my gete. 124

Esaw. welcom brothel, to kyn and kyth, thi wife and childre that1 comes the with, how has thou faren in far* land 1

teH me now som good tythand!. 128

Iacob. WeH, my brother’ Esaw,

If1 that1 thi men no bale me brew.

dicit semis suis.

Esaw. wemo ! felows, hold youre hend, ye se that I and he ar> frend, 132

'H

God blesses Jacob.

Jacob calls the place “ Fanuell," for he has seen God face to face.

Rachel announces the approach of Esau.

Jacob divides his hosts into three parts, placing Rachel Si her sons in the third for safety.

[Fol. 17, b.]

Jacob * Esau greet each other kindly.

Esau bids his men hold their hands.

1 MS. that.

56

Towneley Plays. VII. The Prophets.

Jacob

thanks Esau for his kindness.

Esau recog¬ nizes him as his lord “through destiny."

And frenship here wiH we fulfiH, syn that* it* is godts wiH.

Iacob. God yeld! you, brothere, that it so is that1 thou thi hyne so wold kys.

Esaw. Nay, Iacob, my dere brothere,

I shaH the teH att anothere ;

Thou art1 my lord! thrugh destyny ; go we togeder both thou and I,

To my fader and? his wife,

that1 lofys the, brothel, as thare lyfe.

136

140

Explicit Iacob.

(VII.)

Processus Prophetarwm.

[. Incomplete : 39 six-lined stanzas, aab ccb, and 4 bits of Latin.]

[. Dramatis Personae.

Moyses. Dauid. Sybilla propheta. Daniel.]

Moyses. (Prolog.)

PRophetam excitabit1 deus de fratribws vestris ;

Omwis awi?«a, que no?* audierit1 prophetam ilium, exterminabitw de popwlo suo ;

Nemo prophe/a sine honore nisi in patria sua.

Moses

reminds the people of Israel of the condemna¬ tion of Adam.

God will raise up a prophet, Si all who believe in him shall be saved.

(1)

AH ye folk of1 israeH, herkyn to me ! I wiH you teH Tythyngis farly goode ;

AH wote ys how it1 be feH wherfoi^ Adam was dampnyd? to heH, he, and aH his blode.

(2)

Therfor) wiH god! styi* and rayse A prophete, in som man dayes,

Of1 oure brethere kyn ;

And aH trowes as he says,

And wiH walk in his ways,

ffrom heH he wiH theym twyn.

3

6

9

12

57

Tovmeley Plays . VII. The Prophets.

(3)

when his tyme begynnys to clay,

I rede no man fro hym dray,

In way, ne stand on strut ; 1 5

ffor he that wiH not1 here his sagh, ho be shewed! as an out-lagh,

And from his folkt's be putt1. 18

<*>

I wame you well that same prophete shall com hereafterward!, fuH swete,

And many meruels shew ; 21

Man shall fall till his feete, ffor* cause he can bales beete,

Thrugh his awn thew. 24

(5)

All that1 wiH in trowth ren shall he saue, I warne you then,

Trust1 shall his name be. 27

Bot1 all oue?* wiH man prophete ken with worship, amangis men,

Bot1 in his awne countre. 30

(6)

herkyns aH, both yong and old! !

God that1 has aH in wold!,

Gretys you bi me ; 33

his commaundementw ar* ten ;

Behold1, ye that ar* his men,

hero ye may theym se. 36

0)

his commaundementw that I haue broght1, looke that ye hold! thaym noght1

ffor) tryfyls, ne for> fables ; 39

ffor ye shaH weH vnderstand!

That1 god wrote theym with his hand!

In thyse same tables. 42

(8)

Ye that1 thyse in hart wiH hald!, vnto heuen shaH ye be calc*,

He who will not hear him shall be as an outlaw

The prophet shall show many marvels.

He will save them who walk in truth.

But a pro-

Shet ever as honour save in his own country

[Fol. 18, a. 1 Moses de¬ clares God’s command¬ ments.

They are no trifles nor fables.

God wrotq them with His own hand.

58

Townelcy Plays, VII. The Prophets.

They who hold them in their heart shall go to heaven ; those who do not, to hell.

The first command¬ ment is against idols.

The second, against swearing falsely by God’s name.

The third, to keep the holy day.

The fourth, to honour father and mother.

The fifth, to forsake fornication &l take a mate.

The sixth, to be no manslayer.

The seventh, not to steal.

The eighth, to be true of tongue.

That1 is fyrst to com) ; •

And ye that wiH not do so,

TiH heH pyne mon ye go,

And byde a bytter dome.

(9)

Do now as I shaH you wys ;

The fyrst cowzmaundement1 is this That1 1 shaH you say ;

Make no god of1 stok ne stone,

And trow in none god! bot1 oone,

That1 mayde both nyght and day.

(10)

Anothere bydt# thou shaH not swere, ffoi^ no mede, ne for> no dere, ffalsly, bi godts name ;

If1 thou swere wrongwosly,

Wit thou weH and wytterly,

Thou) art worthi grete blame.

(n)

The thyrd! is, thou shaH weH yheme Thi holy day, and serue to wheme God with aH thi hart1.

The fourt1 cowmaundement1 is bi tayH, ffader and moder worship thou shaH,

In pouert1 and in qwarte.

(12)

The fyft cowmaundts thou shaH forsake ffornycacyon, and take the a make,

And lyf1 in rightwys state.

The sext1 co?rcmftundw thou shal not1 be Man sloer*, for gold! ne fee,

Ne for* luf1, ne for hate.

(13)

The seuenth commaundw that1 thou shaH leue, And nather* go to stele ne reue, ffor more then for* les.

The aght1 bydw both old and yong,

That thay be traw of1 thare tong,

And bere no fals witnes.

59

Towneley Plays. VII. The Prophets.

(14)

The nentli bydts the, bi thi lib,

Thou desyre nob thi neghbur’s wife,

Ne may den thab is liis. 81

The tent1 bid is the, for* no case,

Desyre nob wranwosly thyng thi neghbur) has ;

Do thus, and do no mys. 84

(15)

I am the same man thab god chase,

And toke the ten commauudementw of peasse

In the monte synay ; 87

Thise wordts, I say, ar no les ;

My name is callyd moyses ;

And liaue now aH good day ! [Exit Moses.] 90

Dauid. Omraes reges adorabunt' cum, onmes gentes

seruient ei.

(16)

herkyn, aH, thab here may,

And perceyf weH what I shaH say,

AH with righ[t]wisnes. 93

loke ye pub ib nob away,

Bob thynk theron both nyghb and day,

ffob ib is sothfastnes. 96

(17)

Iesse son, ye wote I am ;

Dauid is my righb name,

And I bere crowne ; 99

Bob ye me trow, ye ar to blame ;

Ob Israel, both wylcf and tame,

I haue in my bondon.1 102

(18)

As god of* heuen has gyffyn me wit, shall I now syng you a fytt,

With my mynstrelsy ; 105

loke ye do ib weH in wrytb,

And theron a knob knytb,

ffor* ib is prophecy. 108

The ninth, not to covet thy neigh¬ bour's wife.

The tenth, to covet nothing of thy neigh¬ bour’s.

[Pol. 18, b.]

These words are true.

David bids the people think on righteous¬ ness.

I am Jesse’s son, David, and have all Israel sub¬ ject ,to me.

He will sing a fytt, which shaU be a prophecy.

1 The ryme needs ‘ bondowne.’

60

David sings of the coming of God’s Son

to be man’s Saviour. Of His coming he is glad.

God’s Son shall return to the

highest seat in heaven

He shall be lord of all. Kings shall kneel to Him,

and bring Him rich gifts.

[Fob 19, a. Sig. E. 1.]

Towneley Plays . VII. The Prophets.

(19)

Myrth I make tiii all men, with my harp and fyngers ten,

And warn theym that thay glad ; ffor god will that his son down send*,

That1 wroght1 adam with his hem),

And heuen and erth mayde.

(20)

He win lyght1 fro heuen towre, ffor to be mans saueyoure,

And saue that1 is forlorne ; ffor that1 1 harp, and myrth make,

Is for he win manhede take,

I tett: you thus beforne ;

(21)

And thider shaH he ren agane,

As gyant1 of mych mayne,

Vnto the hyest1 sete ;

Ther is nawther* kyng, ne swayn,

Then no thyng that1 may hym layn,

Ne hyde from his hete.

(22)

he shatt be lord* and kyng of all,

TyH hys feete shaH kyng/s fall,

To offre to hym wytterly.

Blyssyd* be that1 swete blome,

That1 shatt saue vs at his com) !

Ioyfutt may we be.

(23)

Riche gyft is thay shatt hym bryng,

And till hym make offeryng, kneland on thare kne ; well were hym that1 that lordyng,

And that dere derlyng1,

Myght1 bide on lyfe and se.

(24)

Men may know hym bi his marke,

Myrth and lovyng1 is his warke, that1 shatt he luf1 most.

Ill

114

117

120

123

126

129

132

135

138

141

61

Towneley Plays. VII. The Prophets.

lyght4 shaH be born that* tyme in darke,

Both to lawd? man and to dark,

the luf- of right wys gost. 114

(25)

Therfor>, both emperoure and kyng,

Ryche and poore, both old? and ying,

temper well youro gle, 147

Agans that kyng lyght4 downe,